One Pink Scarf
by GlowingGreenEyes
Summary: There is a dark force threatening the Pokemon world. Hikari's heart may hold the key to more than one puzzle. Can they make it through together? Hikari/Satoshi Ash/Dawn. some Shinji/Hikari. PEARLSHIPPING * OFFICIAL HIATUS - pending rewrite?
1. Nyarmar: Getto Daze!

**One Pink Scarf**

Ages (adjusted to my liking):  
Satoshi/Ash: 17  
Hikari/Dawn: 16  
Takeshi/Brock: 19  
Shinji/Paul: 18

In this story, Hikari has been traveling with Satoshi for a year-- I know the ages don't make sense. Just go with me on this one... lol. I am not an expert on the Pokemon anime, so I may be inaccurate/vague/etc. about things. And I don't own Pokemon. Neither do you. So there. ;P Reviews are appreciated!

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**Chapter One: Nyarmar- Getto Daze!**

The bright early morning sunlight stretched slowly over the wood-encircled clearing where the camp of three teenagers was currently located. A few thin curls of smoke still issued from the small stack of charred logs that had flickered with fire just a couple of hours ago. The Pokemon trainer, breeder, and coordinator had traveled until early morning hours, hoping to make enough progress to catch a barge ride to the next city on their list of destinations for contests and gym battles.

Finally, when both their feet and stomachs were complaining too insistently to be ignored any longer, they stopped to make a fire, eat a quick delicious (as always) dinner courtesy of Takeshi, and collapse for a few hours of sleep before they had to wake up and continue their journey to reach the docks in time to catch their ride.

The first to wake was Hikari. She smiled as soon as she awoke, remembering what day it was the instant she opened her eyes. Even having to get up after only a few hours of sleep couldn't bother her on this particular day-- it was her sixteenth birthday today! She stretched languidly in her warm sleeping bag, her limbs still uncomfortably stiff from traveling most of the previous day. She sighed, lacing her fingers behind her head and staring at the ceiling of her tent as it was gradually illuminated by the incoming sunlight.

Of course, she didn't expect anything special from her two male traveling partners-- she didn't even know if they knew when her birthday was. Had she even ever told them when it was? She doubted that they would have remembered even if she had. Did they even know how old she was? She sighed-- _Boys_. She shook her head once and replaced her expression, which had turned into a thoughtful frown, with a soft smile once again. It didn't matter. Just knowing it was her birthday made her feel happier than she had in a while, and that was enough. Her contests hadn't been going that well lately, and she would take any reason to cheer herself up.

She lay in her cozy sleeping bag for just a moment more before springing up to get ready for the day. She carefully stepped over the curled-up form of her sleeping Pachirisu at the end of her sleeping bag. The small electric Pokemon had just recently learned the attack Discharge, and as a reward, Hikari allowed it to sleep next to her in her sleeping bag, outside of its Pokeball for that night. The problem was that it now much preferred to sleep next to its blue-haired trainer and would put up a fight if she tried to return it to its Pokeball at night. She didn't mind, except for that sometimes this caused a rather embarrassing static-electricity issue with her hair standing on end the next morning. Thankfully, (checking her small handheld mirror from her pack), this was not one of those days. If there was one thing she was sensitive about, it was her hair-- or, rather her appearance in general. She liked to consider herself a fashionable person even if the guys traveling with her, being male, were very unlikely to notice.

Still, (she looked down), she hadn't even had enough energy to change out of her regular clothes into her night clothes, and now her outfit was in a horrible state.

"Yuck," she mumbled to herself.

Her vest and dress were rumpled and dirty, filled with creases. She sighed and grabbed her pack, slinging it over a shoulder. She would just wash off and clean her clothes in the river she had spotted just a few minutes away from their camp. She returned the still-sleeping Pachirisu to its Pokeball (apologizing quietly), before she carefully made her way out of her tent, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

The boys, as she suspected, were still sleeping soundly. It was, according to the pink digital wristwatch that Hikari wore, only 6:30 am. They wouldn't have to leave for another hour and a half or so to catch the boat. While the guys also had a tent, they had been too tired to set it up last night (or this morning, whichever way you like to look at it), so they both had opted for sleeping under the stars. It had been a clear, warm night luckily. She smiled at their sleeping forms-- Ash, dark hair askew with his Pikachu curled up on his chest, and Brock snoring lightly and mumbling something about Nurse Joy. Hikari stepped into her pink boots that had been sitting outside of her tent and tiptoed around her sleeping companions and the smoking stack of logs.

Pikachu's ears twitched slightly and it peeped open one eye at her. She made a "shush" motion with her finger to her lips and then pointed in the direction of the river to explain. Pikachu nodded once and approved with a very sleepy, "piiika," before shutting its eye again. Hikari smiled and skipped the rest of the way to the river, humming the birthday song to herself happily.

After doing a quick visual scan of the area, she quickly threw her clothes off and into the water, setting her pack on a large, flat rock near the water's edge before entering the water herself. It was a bit chilly, so she hurriedly washed off, washed her clothes as best she could, and leapt out of the river. She spread out her clothes on the rock so they would dry wrinkle-free in the sun that was beginning to rapidly heat the air up as it rose into the sky. By the time he had finished brushing the tangles out of her damp, long, shining hair, she found her clothes to be dry and warm, and slipped them on. Just as she had gotten her skirt on and was tugging the white tank she wore under her vest on over her head, she heard a rustling noise.

Popping her head through the hole in her shirt, she spun around, clutching her vest to her chest and searching for the source of the sound. Just to be safe, she backed slowly up to her pack, bent down, and grabbed Pachirisu's Pokeball, which happened to be the only one she had with her at the moment. She pressed the button to enlarge it and tossed it, quietly calling, "Pachirisu, come out!" She deftly caught the white and red ball as it gravitated back to her palm and placed it back in the bag, all the while keeping her eyes on the bushes where she thought the noise had come from.

"Pachi, Pachi!" Pachirisu cheered, and proceeded to chase its tail energetically.

"Shhh!" Hikari quickly shushed and pointed to the bushes. Pachirisu covered its mouth and nodded, taking a battling stance, its cheeks sparking.

When nothing happened after a minute of staring at the bushes, Hikari called out cautiously, "H-Hello? Who's there?"

She received no response, but she could have sworn that she saw the curled tail of a Nyarmar poking out from the bushes as they rustled again. Her heart skipped a beat. This was it! Maybe she could get out of her current contest slump if she could catch this Nyarmar! After all, it was the Pokemon that made her mother a champion.

"Yosh!! Pachirisu, use Discharge!" Hikari yelled confidently pointing her Pokemon to attack the bushes.

"Paachiii!" Blue electricity emitted in the form of a giant wave outwards from its body and moved rapidly in the direction of the bushes. Hikari looked on hopefully, still clutching her vest.

"Nyar!"

The Nyarmar leapt from its hiding place just before the attack hit, and used its spring-like tail to propel itself into the air.

Hikari noticed that its smooth fur coat had an oddly light gleam as the catty Pokemon leapt gracefully through the air and onto a tree branch, easily avoiding the electric attack… Could this be one of those Shiny Pokemon that she had heard about? It was beautiful! Now she was determined to make this Nyarmar a part of her team!

"Nyar!" it said haughtily as it proceeded to leap to another branch.

"Shimatta!" she cursed, seeing the Pokemon escaping swiftly through the treetops. She grabbed her pack and was about to run after it when she heard a strange sound from the woods where the Discharge wave had reached. She paused mid-stride.

"Pachi?" Pachirisu questioned, leaping up to perch on its trainer's shoulder. Hikari crept over to the edge of the woods and peered in.

"Argh! What the hell!" a male voice suddenly called from within the woods. The blue-eyed girl jumped in alarm and ran into the trees, the prospect of capturing the Shiny Nyarmar momentarily forgotten as she feared that her Pachirisu's attack had hit a person that had been in its path by accident. She tripped over something solid under her feet, but regained her balance before she met with the forest floor face first. Unfortunately, Pachirisu had been thrown unceremoniously from her shoulder and landed in the dirt roughly.

"Oops, sorry, Pachirisu!" Hikari apologized and quickly returned the angry Pokemon to its ball before it could shock her in return for her clumsiness.

She heard a groan and whipped around and looked down, only to see…

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To Be Continued!

Please review. :)


	2. Satoshi vs Shinji!

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: The chapters will get longer as they progress, I promise.

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**Chapter Two: Satoshi vs. Shinji!**

_She heard a groan and whipped around and looked down, only to see…_

"Shinji!" Hikari uttered in surprise at the purple-haired trainer that was currently sprawled out on the forest floor. The sight was so ridiculous that Hikari almost laughed, but she managed to keep her composure.

"G-Gomen nasai!" she apologized hastily, holding out a hand to help him up. Even though he was Satoshi's rival, there was no reason they couldn't be civil to each other…

He glared fiercely at her and got up without help, pointedly ignoring the offered hand, and dusting himself off.

…scratch that last thought. Hikari rolled her eyes and humphed.

"Next time, watch where your pathetic little Pokemon aims its weak attacks, and stay out of my way," he said harshly, coldly staring her down.

Hikari shuddered under his icy gaze before firing up at his offensive remarks.

"No need to be so rude! Pachirisu isn't weak! And how was I supposed to know you were hiding in the bushes and-- Wait! How long have you been there and why were you creeping around in the forest anyway?"

She suddenly felt quite exposed as she was still vest-less, standing in front of a boy in a white tank top that wasn't exactly the most concealing thing. She was sure he could probably see…ah… certain pink-colored undergarments through the thin material and quickly crossed her arms over her chest.

He noticed the action with a flick of his eyes and smirked a little, "I only came to wipe the floor with Satoshi once again. I need to test out some of my new Pokemon to see if they are at least strong enough to beat his pathetic Pokemon," He ignored the first part of her question.

Hikari sighed, ignoring the slew of insults in his sentence, "Well our camp is in the clearing over there, but there's no guarantee that he's even awake yet."

Shinji nodded expressionlessly, "I'll come by in a bit."

And then he simply turned, gathered his backpack from the forest floor and walked off in the opposite direction of what she had indicated.

Hikari stared after him for a moment, but didn't bother calling out a goodbye.

In a slightly worse mood than before, she quickly put on her vest as soon as Shinji was out of sight, headed back to the river, tied her scarf around her neck, carefully put her signature hairdo together, gathered the rest of her things and started back towards the camp.

When she got near, she could smell the delicious scent Takeshi's wonderful cooking floating on the light breeze, which lightened her mood again. She arrived in the clearing to see Satoshi rolling up the sleeping bags and Takeshi working on breakfast over the fire.

"Morning!" She called cheerfully as she approached, dropping her bag and plopping down on a large log near the crackling fire. She noticed that someone had taken her tent down for her.

"Morning," Satoshi grumbled, obviously not a morning person. Hikari grinned at his sleepy greeting.

"Pika Chu!" Pikachu answered happily, bounding to sit her lap. Hikari patted it on the head and it leapt off.

"Good Morning, Hikari," Takeshi replied politely. Hikari smiled again. He was always the more mature one. Then again, he was older than both herself and Satoshi.

The thought of Takeshi's breakfast cooking almost made her forget about meeting Shinji in the woods.

"Oh, Satoshi, I almost forgot-- I ran into Shinji and he said he's going to come by today for a battle…He'd better do it soon, though, we've gotta leave in"-- she glanced at her watch--"half an hour."

"Good! That'll give me a chance to wipe the floor with him again!" Satoshi said cockily, perking up a bit at the mention of a battle.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu agreed enthusiastically.

Hikari laughed at the fact that Satoshi had said exactly what Shinji had. He looked at her oddly but she just waved his look away with her hand, not wanting to explain.

"What-- you don't think I'll beat him!? Cos I will!" Ash said, taking her laughter the wrong way and going on the defense.

Hikari wanted to avoid fighting with him today, "No, I'm sure you'll definitely beat him," she said sincerely, looking him dead in the eye.

He blinked, "Well… well, good. Cos I'm gunna." Hikari smiled for the umpteenth time that morning.

Satoshi finished packing up camp, jammed his hat onto his head without even dealing with his wildly messy hair, and sat next to Hikari on the log in front of the fire. Hikari cringed at how badly she wished he would have brushed his hair…it looked so tangly…maybe if she could just untangle it with her fingers…

"What?"

Hikari snapped back to reality, "Huh?"

"What'cha looking at?" Satoshi asked, poking her in the arm with his finger teasingly.

Hikari realized that she had been staring at him, "N-nothing, sorry!" She smiled a little too widely, but Satoshi seemed to accept her answer; That, or he didn't care to hear a decent excuse because their breakfast was ready and his stomach was grumbling.

They were each handed a plate with an omelet on it. Takeshi sat on a log adjacent to theirs and watched Hikari. Just as she was about to dig in without even looking at her plate, he cleared his throat. She looked up at him.

"…What?" She questioned blankly. Ash was busy scarfing his food down already.

Takeshi nodded down to her plate, indicating that she should look at it. She looked down and saw that he had written "Happy Birthday!" on the top of her omelet with green and red peppers (very sloppily, but still legible). Hikari immediately laughed out loud as a grin spread itself across her face.

"Thank you, Takeshi, I didn't even know you knew when my birthday was!" He set her plate down and gave him a quick, friendly hug before returning to her seat next to Satoshi.

"It's the least I could do," he smiled and continued eating his own omelet.

"Whuff? Ish yo bufday?" Satoshi managed through a mouthful of omelet. Hikari fought the urge to wrinkle her nose at the bits of egg that had flown from his mouth and landed on her bare leg.

She brushed the yolk pieces off and replied lightly:

"Yep! Sixteen today!" She smiled and picked up her fork to start her omelet.

Satoshi had finished with his already. Swallowing his last mouthful of egg, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and said, "Sorry, I didn't know."

Hikari looked at him, taken aback by his apology. His tone of voice seemed genuinely guilty.

The blue-haired girl just smiled and shrugged, "Don't worry about it. I don't even know how Takeshi knew about it." She turned back to her food.

"Well, Happy Birthday, Hikari," she heard him say softly. Once again, his tone caught her by surprise. She looked at him again and saw him smiling softly looking back at her with his dark eyes.

She just grinned back in reply and continued to eat, her mind set to thinking. It was amazing how different Satoshi and Shinji's eyes were. Satoshi's were warm and expressive while Shinji's made her feel like she had just jumped into a pool of ice water. She shivered at the memory.

Speak of the devil…

"Yo! Can you stop stuffing your face long enough so you can come get it smashed into the dirt when I beat you in this battle, Satoshi?" came an unpleasantly familiar voice.

Hikari looked up from her omelet to see Shinji standing behind Takeshi with his arms folded and looking as arrogant as ever.

"Bring it on! We'll see who'll be the one eating dirt!" Satoshi sprang up and called Pikachu to him.

Hikari slowly set her plate down and stood up to watch the battle. Takeshi did the same.

Shinji's eyes caught Hikari's for a fraction of a second-- she froze, he just smirked and flicked his cool gaze back to her messy-haired companion who was ready for a fight.

"Let's go! I choose Pikachu!"

"Pika!" it barked, ready for battle and stepping onto the field sparking at the cheeks.

Shinji walked to face Ash a few feet away from him and casually threw out a Pokeball. Once again his gaze met with Hikari's for a moment before he looked away.

Hikari was starting to get a little confused at his actions. Maybe she was imagining things…

Then, as she looked back to the battle field, Hikari's jaw nearly dropped at what Pokemon Shinji had released-- It was the Shiny Nyarmar she had seen in the forest! Could he have seen her fail to capture it and brought it here just to spite her? She frowned. How humiliating! And what a jerk!

She checked his face for any kind of expression, but he was fixedly staring ahead with no indication on his face that he had known that she had been after this Pokemon.

The battle seemed like it would be over very quickly.

It was clear that Nyarmar had the upper hand, it was extremely fast and took barely any hits from Pikachu, while it managed to land quite a few.

Just as it was about to land what would have most likely been the finishing blow with a powerful-looking Shadow Claw, it was suddenly enveloped by a red light and disappeared from the field.

"Hey!" Ash yelled, "What gives?"

"Pi…?," the tired Pikachu panted and slowly got to its feet, confused.

Shinji didn't answer Satoshi. He had called his Pokemon back when he was about to win the battle.

"That's all I needed to see," he said calmly, before smoothly tossing the ball in Hikari's direction, "You can have this. It's too weak for me to keep."

Reflexively, she caught it in her hands. She looked down at the Pokeball, then back at the purple-haired trainer's face.

"D-Demo… it would have won…?" She said dumbly, staring at him in disbelief.

He merely shrugged, and, even stranger still, winked at her before he turned and left saying an aloof, "Happy Birthday."

Hikari's jaw nearly dropped at the extreme weirdness of what had just happened.

After a full minute of numb disbelief, she snapped out of it and called out a, "H-hey, Shinji! Thank you, Shinji!" to Shinji's retreating form.

He held up one hand to show that he heard, but didn't look back or stop.

Satoshi looked dumbfounded, "What the heck just happened?"

"I…. don't know," Hikari said, still staring at the Pokeball in her hands in uncertainty.

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To Be Continued.


	3. Prepare for Trouble!

**One Pink Scarf**

A/N: Slight edit on 9/10/11… just cause I felt like it! Also I updated Hikari's Pokemon lineup a bit. Obviously it can't match the show exactly since she now has Nyarmar and she still has Buizel and I can't exactly get rid of them at this point…whattaya gunna do.

**Chapter Three: Prepare for Trouble!**

_Satoshi looked dumbfounded, "What the heck just happened?" _

"_I…. don't know," Hikari said, still staring at the Pokeball in her hands in uncertainty_.

Hikari was confused by Shinji's actions to say the least.

How did he know it was her birthday today? And why would he give her the Shiny Nyarmar, it was obviously not weak—in fact, it appeared to be exceptionally strong and fast during its battle with Satoshi's Pikachu. And it's not every day a Shiny Pokemon crosses your path; why on earth would he want to give one away?

She was still grasping the Pokeball in her hand as the trio hiked to the docks where they were to catch their ride across the bay to the next city, staring at it blankly. Hikari wondered if Shinji only gave her the Pokemon to make Satoshi look bad. That would definitely fit his profile… And Satoshi did seem to be acting weird about it. Hikari glanced over at him as he walked next to her through the grassy field. He appeared to be deep in thought. She almost laughed at the idea of Satoshi thinking hard about anything, but was startled out of her musing when Satoshi suddenly turned his face to stare back at her. She blinked.

"Well, why don't you at least let it out?" he said in a stiff tone that, scarily enough, reminded her of Shinji. She stared at him for a moment.

"Huh? Oh! Uh... O-Okay… Nyarmar, come out!"

She gently tossed the Pokeball forward, releasing the coil-tailed cat.

The cat stretched languidly, took in its surroundings with a bored expression, mewed its name, sat down and began licking its paws clean.

" Kirei!" Hikai cried in awe, admiring its sparkling fur as it caught the sunlight. Satoshi looked annoyed. Takeshi watched them both with calm interest.

"Hey, Hikari, we've got some extra time, why don't you introduce the rest of your team to Nyarmar?" Takeshi suggested.

"Great idea, Takeshi!" She rummaged in her bag for a moment, retrieving all of her Pokeballs. She made a mental note to get one of those belts to clip them all to, like Satoshi did. It seemed a lot more convenient.

"Everyone, come on out!" She tossed them all up at once.

Her other Pokemon appeared one by one: Pachirisu, Pochama, Togekiss, Magmarashi and Buizel.

Nyarmar stood up and hissed at them, the hair on its back standing up. Hikari sweatdropped. Satoshi smirked a little, Takeshi frowned.

Buizel, of course, took this as a challenge and waved its paw in a motion that clearly said "Bring it on!".

"Bui, Bui!" It taunted, puffing out its chest. It prepared for an Aqua Jet attack.

"Ah! No! Buizel, return!" Hikari called the Pokemon back, "Nyarmar, these are your new team mates, don't you want to meet them?"

On cue, the group simultaneously struck a pose and chorused their names happily.

"….Nyar," the cat growled, arrogantly turning its back on the rest of Hikari's Pokemon. Its haughtiness reminded Hikari strongly of a certain trainer_… Maybe it should have stayed with him, they would get along great_, she grumbled mentally.

Hikari sighed. The rest of the Pokemon looked dejected, deflating slightly. Pochama got angry and started squawking loudly at the cat Pokemon, who ignored the small penguin until it grabbed hold of the coiled tail with its beak and gave it a good, hard yank.

"Pocha, Pochama!"

"Pochama, no!" Hikari shouted desperately, but it was too late. Nyarmar went ballistic, scratching and biting everything in sight; namely, the rest of Hikari's team. Soon it was an all out brawl between the cat and the rest of the Pokemon. It was absolute madness; things were catching on fire thanks to Magmarashi's flamethrower chasing the cat around, thunderbolts were flying everywhere. Pochama accidentally hit the fire Pokemon with a stream of bubbles, which resulted in a sub-tussle between the two within the chaos. Togekiss hovered above the mob, trying to calm them all down, but ended up being hit by a rogue shockwave from Pachirisu, sending her down, paralyzed.

Hikai groaned in frustration, "Everyone, stop it!" Her plea could hardly be heard over the commotion.

Satoshi and Takeshi stood by, unsure of whether or not they should try to help. Pikachu observed the chaos from Satoshi's shoulder.

"Piiika," he commented solemnly. Satoshi nodded slowly in agreement with whatever had been said.

Out of ideas, Hikari gave chase and tried to grab Nyarmar around its middle, but it kept slipping from her grasp. Finally, after having no success for about five minutes, she managed to get a firm hold on it, when it hissed and proceeded to attack her arms and legs with its sharp claws.

"Ow! Hey, you- That's IT!" She yelled, throwing the yowling cat from her none-too-gently. It continued its assault on her other Pokemon, who were now scattering in all directions to avoid being clawed to death.

She looked briefly to Satoshi for permission; he gave a small nod, somehow picking up on her unspoken request. Her blue eyes blazing, "Pikachu, would you please?" Hikari shouted.

"Pi-Ka!" the yellow Pokemon nodded dutifully, leaping from its shoulder perch and performing a powerful thundershock on the whole group of Pokemon, who promptly fell to the ground, swirly-eyed and out for the count.

Hikari sighed dejectedly and returned them all to their Pokeballs, "Thanks Pikachu," she said glumly.

"Pi!" it climbed back up to Satoshi's shoulder, receiving from its trainer a pat on its head for its efforts.

"Well, that didn't go very well," Satoshi observed understatedly, rubbing the back of his neck tensely.

To her own horror, tears began to well up in Hikari's blue eyes. She wiped at them furiously with the back of her hand. Satoshi and Takeshi shared a grave look, the sort of look that boys share when there is a girl crying and they must attempt to deal with it somehow.

"Figures that I would get such an awesome Pokemon and it hates me already!" she wailed, dropping to her knees in the grass, before yelping and getting up again because her scratched up legs stung painfully. She looked at her limbs that were now covered in ugly red scratches, some bleeding.

"Am I just completely hopeless?" she asked her traveling companions, looking quite pathetically defeated.

They took in her pitiable state. The two boys shared another look before one of them spoke up. Surprisingly to all, it was Satoshi.

"Of course not! You'll be able to train that Nyarmar! I mean, if it listened to jerk like Shinji, it'll be no problem for you, right?" He tried, slapping on a smile.

"Pi Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed heartily.

Hikari groaned again, "It listened so well to him! Why not me? What's wrong with me?"

Satoshi frowned; that was not what he meant. See, that's why he doesn't speak up in situations such as this. He gave Takeshi a pointed look that told him it was his turn to try.

Instead of searching for an answer to calm their female companion, Takeshi decided to change the subject.

"Hey, if we don't get a move on now, we're going to miss the boat. And I think there is a PokeCenter near the docks that you might want to bring your Pokemon to before we leave, Hikari."

"Hai, guess so," she nodded glumly as they began walking again.

The girl sipped contemplatively on some water as they walked, pondering whether it was a possibility that Shinji had actually planned for her to end up looking like a fool and getting scratched to bits. She voiced her theory to Takeshi.

"Hmmm… that doesn't seem likely," he replied, smiling mysteriously. She tilted her head in confusion.

"Eh? Why not?" Hikari asked, taking another gulp of water.

"Ah, well, because…," his smile grew, "I think he might have taken a liking to you, Hikari."

The blue-haired coordinator choked on her water and yelped, "C-Come again?"

Satoshi, who had been pretending not to be paying any attention to the conversation up to this point now openly turned to look at the two, a peculiar expression on his face.

"He…. He always gives away Pokemon, to complete strangers most of the time; what makes you think this time is any different?" Hikari countered, crossing her arms.

"Well, I think you know as well as I do that that Nyarmar is far from weak," Takeshi explained slowly, "And, he could hardly keep his eyes off you just now, if you hadn't noticed. I don't think that battle was really for Satoshi or for Shinji, I think it was for you."

Hikari was stunned silent after this, "I… don't even….That's crazy," she finally mumbled weakly.

Takeshi just shrugged and kept smiling, a nonverbal "suit yourself".

Satoshi grumbled something about "jerks" and "leaving battles" and "stupid Nyarmar."

Hikari was lost in her own head until the smell of the sea air and the cries of Wingulls snapped her out of her current train of thought. They had arrived at the port.

"I'll take your Pokemon to the PokeCenter and you guys stay here and make sure the boat doesn't leave without us," Takeshi offered. Hikari nodded and was handing him her Pokeballs (except Buizel, who had not taken part in the scuffle and was fine), when one slipped from her hands and rolled down one of the docks, popping open near the end.

Hikari scrambled after it, "Hey! Come back here!"

"Nyar!" said the now-released Nyarmar. It sat down and began licking its paws again, its Pokeball sitting next to it.

"Oh, no," Hikari moaned, approaching Nyarmar cautiously on her hands and knees… if she could just get its Pokeball…

"What on earth are you doing?"

Hikari froze mid-reach for the Pokeball. Nyarmar meowed with delight and leapt over Hikari and up to the shoulder of who ever had just spoken. Hikari had a sinking feeling. She grabbed the empty ball, got to her feet and turned slowly. _Oh please, let it be anyone but…._

"S-Shinji…," she greeted as her heart dropped somewhere into her stomach region. She thought she must probably look totally idiotic at the moment. He looked her up and down with his hard glare, taking in all of the scratches that covered her skin. He raised an eyebrow. She blushed at his scrutiny.

The Nyarmar purred on his shoulder and rubbed itself on his cheek. The boy's face twisted briefly into a look of disgust before he grabbed the cat by the neck scruff and dropped it into Hikari's arms. She took it carefully, shocked as it simply lay still, purring. She stared at it for a long moment before looking back up to see that Shinji was still there and, if she wasn't imagining things, standing closer to her than before, He was staring down at her with an unreadable expression. Reflexively, she took a step back.

"L-Look, Shinji, it was... er-really nice of you to give me this Pokemon, but I think you should keep it," she choked out, "It really hates me… and it seems to like you a lot better."

He tsked and shook his head, "I don't want that thing. And anyway, you obviously need to work on controlling your Pokemon. I'll—", he abandoned the sentence, gaze locked on something over Hikari's shoulder. Shinji scowled at him.

He gave one last significant look to Hikari before turning to leave, "See you."

Satoshi passed him on the dock and they both made a point of ignoring the other.

"What was that about?" he asked grumpily as soon as he reached Hikari.

"I hope we don't have to share a boat with him," he continued without waiting for her to answer his question.

Hikari just nodded, stroking the purring Nyarmar numbly and staring off into space. The way he had stared at her… made her insides twist up and her face burn. Maybe that was because he had insulted the way she handled her Pokemon, though.

"NYAR!" the cat Pokemon suddenly yowled as it was snatched directly from Hikari's arms by what appeared to be a large, mechanical arm.

"Hey, what the-!"

"Team Rocket!" Satoshi yelled angrily.

In the water near the end of the dock was a submarine with a large red "R" painted on its side. Musashi and Kojiro were laughing from the top door of the sub as the giant hand deposited the struggling Nyarmar into a small cage.

Hikari automatically reached for her bag to call out her Pokemon, but she couldn't find any of her Pokeballs.

"Shimatta!" she cursed, remembering she had sent them with Takeshi.

"Mukubird, grab that cage!" Satoshi ordered, quickly releasing his flying Pokemon.

As soon as it had wrestled the cage away from the Rockets and swooped back, the bird deposited the cage in Hikari's arms, and she quickly unlatched the door. The cat streaked out and down the dock before she had a second to get a hold of it.

"Hey!" she called, about to run after it, when her feet were roughly knocked from beneath her. She hit the wood hard, flat on her back.

"Ugh!" she grunted as the air left her lungs. Dazed for a moment, her vision finally focused on the mechanical arm from the Rocket sub lashing around in the air above her, chasing after Mukubird.

Satoshi stepped up, holding his arm out as Pikachu raced down it and used it as a springboard, leaping high into the air.

"Thunderbolt!" Satoshi cried angrily, at the exact same time as another voice…

Hikari tilted her head back to see Shinji standing at the other end of the dock with his Elekid out, who was also performing a Thunderbolt on the Team Rocket sub. Their eyes connected for a millisecond before Shinji's expression suddenly changed from determined to fearful as he watched the powerful electric attacks come together…

The two combined Thunderbolts hit the sub at once, causing a gigantic explosion that neither Satoshi nor Shinji had anticipated. The Rockets scrambled to jump from the sub as it combusted, forcefully blasting the surrounding water upwards in a quickly expanding shockwave.

The rickety wooden dock was obliterated right from underneath Hikari and Satoshi, launching them high into the air. Suddenly there was nothing solid and there was no telling what way was up and what was down. Were they flying up? Forward? Backwards? Were they going to hit land? Hikari flailed around frantically, wanting to scream, but her voice was caught in her throat. A familiar flash of black and yellow passed by her eyes and she made a wild grab for it. Her fingers closed around the front of Satoshi's vest, abruptly bringing herself closer to him and in the process, cracking the top of her head on the bottom of his jaw by accident.

She saw stars in front of her eyes before recovering quickly and yelling out a, "Sorry!" over the air rushing past them.

Everything was happening in slow motion. She caught a glimpse the water's surface coming rapidly closer and gasped, gripping tighter on Satoshi's vest. She felt Satoshi's arms quickly come around her shoulders, pulling her in more securely. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth, bracing for a hard impact with the water. There was no sound but the deafening roar of the wind and the sound of the crashing waves that were rushing to meet them. She could hear Satoshi's fast heartbeat next to her ear for a moment. Suddenly everything was regular speed again. Or faster. Hikari couldn't tell, but she knew that this was definitely going to hurt.

The two hit the water sideways, still clinging to each other. Hikari's grip was ripped away from Satoshi's vest by the rough crash onto the surface. The last thing she saw was Satoshi's hat floating towards her on the water. She hazily reached for it, but never felt her fingers close over the brim as her vision faded to black…


	4. Buizel and the Bats

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Once again, I appreciate any reviews.

edited 6/20 (I constantly edit the chapters as I find improvements to be made.. " )

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**Chapter Four: Buizel and the Bats**

_The last thing she saw before she passed out was Satoshi's hat floating towards her on the water. She hazily reached for it, but never felt her fingers close over the brim as her vision faded to black…_

Hikari was rudely brought back to reality by someone tugging on her arm annoyingly. Her head was spinning, it felt like the ground beneath her was tilting…It was taking a long time for her brain to process her surroundings. She knew she was lying on her stomach… What was she lying on, anyway? It felt hard and was poking her ribs uncomfortably … There was water… coming and going. Coming… going… Waves. And rocks. There was a weight on her back…Her backpack. Everything in it must be soaked…

"Bui, Bui…" a soft voice said, echoing her mind.

An involuntary groan escaped her lips as she cracked her eyes open slowly, expecting sunlight. Instead she was surrounded by darkness. Her head was pounding with pain. A sudden, overwhelming urge to be sick crashed upon her and she quickly forced herself up, her palms slipping and being cut on the rocks. She heaved up a lot of seawater, coughing and gasping while struggling to sit up. Her cuts stung as the salty liquid splashed onto them with each incoming wave.

She finally was able to pull her legs underneath her, kneeling. Her head seemed unnaturally heavy, though. Pressure on her shoulders was helpfully pushing her into an upright position. She blinked a few times and waited for her eyes to adjust to the light (or lack thereof). She took in her surroundings… a vast, rocky shore leading to a few feet of beach that became quickly overgrown with thick forest… Then she noticed the form in standing right front of her-- the one holding her up.

"Buizel…?" she said, astonished. The Pokemon usually had a less-than-friendly disposition towards its master. Now it was supporting her with its paws on her shoulders, watching her warily in case she was going to throw up some more water.

"Did you pull me all the way to shore?" she asked, recollection of what had happened slowly coming back to her.

"Bui, Bu--," he began to reply, nodding and looking proud of itself, before it was cut off by Hikari throwing her seaweed-draped arms around it in a tight hug, nearly knocking the small Pokemon down.

"Arigato, Buizel!!" she pulled away, smiling brightly at it.

"Bui," Buizel looked embarrassed, rubbing the back of its head with its paw.

The blue haired girl took a mental inventory of what bodily damage she had sustained. She started from the top, literally. Head... pounding. Hair... She made a disgusted face as she pushed her now tragically bedraggled hair out of her eyes. She licked her dry lips, hissing with pain as her tongue ran over a cut in the bottom one. She touched it gingerly with a finger, then moved on. Arms... scratched, but otherwise intact. She was brushing the seaweed and other ocean debris from her shoulders and forearms when she jumped-- Surprised that she hadn't noticed it earlier, Hikari realized that she had something clutched in her left hand… Satoshi's soaking hat!

Suddenly it struck her-- "Buizel, where's Satoshi?" She asked, alarmed, looking around frantically. Her head complained at being moved around so quickly, but she ignored it.

"Bui!" Her Pokemon pointed a paw a few feet down the moonlit rocky shallows to a dark form lying farther up on the wet sandy beach.

Hikari scrambled to her feet, bill of the hat still enclosed in her numb fingers. As she gained her balance, Buizel timidly offered its wet little paw. She blinked at it for moment before accepting it and allowing the water Pokemon to guide her carefully across the slippery rocks to the beach ahead. Hikari stared down at it in wonder, but it resolutely kept its eyes looking forward.

When they finally reached the more stable sandy land and Buizel dropped her hand, and Hikari bent down and swiftly kissed it on the top of its head.

"Arigato, again, Buizel," she thanked quickly (not noticing the slight blush crossing her Pokemon's muzzle). Hikari started towards the form lying on the beach about 50 feet away from her before trying to call out to him.

"Satoshi!" What she had intended to be a shout came out as a rasp riddled with coughs. She had to stop to catch her breath. Man, was her throat sore! She could barely talk, let alone yell. She massaged her neck and pulled her scarf looser. Must have been the sea water or something.

"Nuuughh..," came a weak groan from Satoshi.

Hikari urged her feet into motion, the wet sand making it harder to move and her soaking clothes weighing her down. She tossed her wet, heavy pack from her shoulder, dumping it on the shore. She half-ran, half-tripped her way through the sand over to where Satoshi lie; now he was slowly sitting up, rubbing the back of his head.

Hikari dropped to her knees beside him both because her legs felt too heavy to carry her even one more step, and also to help him sit up. She placed a hand gently behind his back and watched him with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked scratchily, wincing at the sound of her own voice.

Satoshi took a deep breath and answered, "I think I'll live…you?"--she nodded--"I guess now we know what Team Rocket feels like when they get blasted off…" He ran a hand through his black hair, pausing when he realized that his hat was missing.

"Oh, here!" Hikari held his hat out to him, "It's a little wet, but I think it'll survive."

He took it, amazed, "How did you--?"

"No idea, just had it in my hand when I came to!" she answered, grinning.

Satoshi looked around, "I can't see any city lights… or any signs of the dock. Where d'you reckon we landed?"

Hikari looked at the Poketch on her wrist, but it had obviously been damaged by the water exposure, for the screen was completely blank, not even displaying the time any more. She shook her wrist and checked it again, with no results. She tried punching all of the buttons. Still no response.

"No idea," she finally answered, "My Poketch isn't-- Oh, no…" She snapped her mouth shut mid-sentence, slapping a hand over it.

Satoshi leaned forward to see her face around her curtain of hair, "What is it?"

Hikari simply shook her head, eyes closed. Another wave of nausea had hit her stomach. She lurched forward and heaved up some more seawater along with what looked like part of her birthday omelet.

Satoshi looked alarmed at the sudden action.

How graceful..., she thought dryly.

"Well," she gasped after she had finished coughing and wiped her mouth with her hand, "That… omelet…definitely was better the first time..."

"Are you sure you're alright, Hikari?"

She waved her hand at him, as if waving his question away, "Fine, fine."

She steadied her breathing and slowly pushed herself back onto her feet, offering her hand back down to Satoshi, who gratefully took it and helped himself up. Satoshi placed his wet hat on his hair that was now wet, covered in sand, and hopelessly tangled.

"Well… what now?" Hikari asked to no one in particular.

"Bui, Bui."

Satoshi and Hikari both jumped, finding Buizel standing next to them. It had dragged Hikari's pack over to them across the sand from where she had abandoned it. When it dropped the pack on the sand, something fell out of the opening, rolling into Hikari's boot and gently bouncing off. She bent down and picked it up, holding it up and turning it in the moonlight to get a better look. It was a Pokeball, but it was definitely broken-- it was cracked in several places.

"A broken Pokeball… but where did-- Buizel, is this yours?" Hikari asked. It must have gotten busted when she hit the water, letting Buizel out. Good luck, since it had saved both their lives.

"Bui," the Pokemon confirmed somewhat hesitantly.

"Wow," Satoshi interrupted, sounding impressed. Hikari looked at him in askance.

"Buizel's ball broke… so it is now technically a free Pokemon, but it stuck around and helped us out," Satoshi elaborated.

Hikari stared at the otter-like Pokemon, "Oh. Well… now that you're free, I suppose you want to… be on your own way then, huh, Buizel?" She asked sadly. She knew that Buizel had never really taken to having Hikari as a trainer and probably would prefer the independent life it had known before she had captured it. She was ready to accept its decision, her head hanging.

"Bui, Bui!" the Pokemon answered fiercely, tapping Hikari's leg. She looked down to see that he was holding out a new red Pokeball in its paw, looking at her sternly. She slowly took the ball from Buizel, confused, until the water Pokemon tapped its nose on the ball and let itself be captured in a flash of red light.

Hikari's eyes welled up with the overwhelming emotion that filled her. She immediately threw the ball up and let Buizel back out. She nearly choked it with another hug, wailing, "Buizel, you are the sweetest thing! I promise I'll be a better trainer, you won't regret it!"

Satoshi looked on awkwardly laughing and scratching the back of his head. Buizel's expression was embarrassed as it uncomfortably patted Hikari's back.

The touching scene was ended when Satoshi's stomach growled rather loudly. His eyes met with Hikari's and they both just laughed. She stood back up.

"Well, I guess we should try to make a fire cook some food, and dry off. And if anyone is looking for us it could make us easier to spot."

Satoshi nodded.

"I'll go get some firewood," he said, fishing a flashlight out from Hikari's pack and starting off in direction of the woods.

"C-Chotto matte!" Hikari yelped.

He turned back to her, "What?"

"You can't just leave me out here all by myself, that's my only flashlight! I'm coming too!" she slung her bag over her shoulder and hurried after him, beckoning Buizel to follow. When Satoshi started walking, he found his traveling companion hovering so closely behind him that he could feel her warm puffs of breath on the back of his neck. His skin tingled and he involuntarily shivered slightly at the sensation. He looked back at her over his shoulder with slight question in his eyes. She just smiled nervously. He returned a quick reassuring smile before they began to wind their way through the dense trees, picking up sticks and the like as they went, Buizel following.

After about 2 minutes of walking, Satoshi stopped out of nowhere. Hikari, not paying close enough attention, ran into his back with a small "oof." Buizel stopped before it ran into the back of Hikari's legs and looked around the two teenagers, curious as to why they had halted.

"Sorry!" whispered Hikari. Satoshi shushed her.

"What is it?" she stood on tiptoe and peeked around his shoulder... and had to slap a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at the sight that met her eyes.

Satoshi had stopped because hanging from the trees in front of them were what must have been hundreds of Zubats and Golbats. Hikari couldn't tell exactly what they were in the darkness (Satoshi wisely kept the flashlight pointed at the ground), but she could see many sets of glowing eyes staring back at her. Her skin was positively crawling.

"S-Satoshi..?" she said quietly in a trembling voice, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Just back up and go back the way we came," he said to her out of the side of his mouth, beginning to back up without turning around. She nodded against his back and also began to move carefully backwards, eyes glued on the glowing ones that were following the pair's movement intently.

Hikari gasped as she felt her boot get caught in a root sticking up from the ground. As she began to fall backwards, she dropped the sticks she had been holding, and flung her arms around Satoshi's middle automatically to try to stop herself. Instead, she managed to bring him down backwards on top of her, the flashlight in his hand flying from his hand and flashing across the bat-infested trees; his stack of wood also going flying…and angering the many pairs of eyes which were temporarily blinded by the light and struck by various pieces of wood.

A loud screeching filled the night air as hundreds of wings flapped and the agitated group took flight.

"Bui!" Buizel began frantically and blindly attacking the oncoming mass of bat Pokemon with jets of water, successfully knocking some bats of the sky, but only angering the larger ones.

They began to dive-bomb Buizel and Satoshi and Hikari, who were still tangled in each other on the forest floor. Wings roughly buffeted their heads.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Hikari yelled over the deafening screeching, apologizing to both the boy currently suffocating her and the irate swarm. She pushed Satoshi forward to sit up off of her and shielded her head with her arms. Satoshi got to his feet fast and grabbed Hikari by the wrist, hauling her to her up with him. He lost his grip on her as more of the bat Pokemon surrounded them, blocking their view of each other, the flashlight lost on the floor of the forest somewhere.

"We've gotta run for it!" He yelled, being attacked from all sides, barely able to see though the flapping mass that surrounded their heads. He punched a few of the flying Pokemon, but that just made them angrier.

Desperately not wanting to be left behind, Hikari groped wildly for Satoshi, landing hold of his shirt sleeve before following his arm, sliding her hand down it to grab onto his hand at the end. He seemed to stall for a moment before wrapping his fingers around hers and proceeding to yank her through the forest at a crazy pace. Hikari didn't think much of his reaction, as she was soon distracted by the task of dodging incoming branches and trying to stay upright while stumbling her way through the undergrowth after him

"C'mon Buizel!" she shouted.

Meanwhile, Satoshi's mind was spinning with trying to work out why he had been momentarily frozen by such a simple and harmless action. Just the feel of her hand dragging its way down his arm was enough to paralyze him for a moment and cause his heart to skip a beat. Luckily, he had snapped out of it quickly enough.

He pulled her along as he ran in the direction of what he hoped was the beach. If only he had Pikachu with him…

Hikari tried to swat the attackers away with her free hand, but there were far too many. She felt them tugging at her scarf, finally pulling it free of her neck and flapping away with it. Buizel sent some angry water jets after the perps, but it was no good.

"Hey!" she called, slowing down a bit, with half a mind to go back and fight for her scarf. Satoshi gave another tug on her hand to dissuade her, reading her thoughts. They tripped their way though the tree roots and bushes as fast as they could until they finally reached a clearing. It wasn't the shore, but at least it wasn't as dark as the dense forest they had been lost in a moment earlier. It was a small area carpeted in short grass and inhabited by only a few trees and shrubs. There was a clear view of the night sky, the moon casting pale light on the area.

Hikari crept out from behind Satoshi, still gripping his hand, "I think they stopped following us. Little crooks got my scarf though!" She scanned the sky angrily.

Satoshi nervously disentangled his now sweaty hand from hers and walked a few paces into the clearing. She watched him curiously, missing the warmth and security that his hand in hers had momentarily provided.

"Buizel, smell anything dangerous here?" Satoshi asked it. The Pokemon dropped the bundle of sticks it had managed to keep hold of, and stepped forward.

After a moment of sniffing the air, Buizel shook its head and replied, "Bui!"

"Well, I guess this place is as good as any to make camp…I don't think we'll be able to find our way back to the beach in the dark," Satoshi said to Hikari.

"Good, I'm beat!" She replied truthfully, sitting down heavily on a large, moss-covered log. Her head was throbbing painfully again, and both her new cuts and her scratches from Nyarmar were stinging from all the salt water exposure, and she now had new scratches thanks to their romp through the woods. Her throat was killing her and she felt extremely thirsty. She shuffled around in her bag to find a couple of bottled waters. The last ones she had. But she figured they would probably be rescued the next day so there wasn't any need to conserve, really. She uncapped one and took a long drink, sighing as it soothed her throat.

She tossed one to Satoshi, who thanked her but set it down without taking a drink and started to work on getting a fire going with the sticks that Buizel had saved. Hikari supplied a lighter that she had in her pack, because all of the matches were now useless. She also dragged her sleeping bag out, unrolled it, and hung it over a branch to dry.

Once Satoshi had success in getting a decent-sized fire going, he joined Hikari on the log. Hikari felt like she hadn't been dry and warm in days. She sighed as the fire warmed her skin.

"Some birthday," she muttered, resting her head on her knees tiredly.

Satoshi didn't make any response. When Hikari looked up a few minutes later, he appeared to be observing her with a small smile on his face.

"What in the world could you be smiling about?" she questioned miserably.

He laughed and replied brightly, a teasing glint and the reflection of the fire flickering in his warm brown eyes…

"You should see your hair right now."

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To Be Continued.


	5. Mystery of the Missing Daylight

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Just to clarify, this story is/will be Ash x Dawn (Satoshi x Hikari)… just a little bit of one-sided (meaning only Shinji) ShinjixHikari. Just to keep things interesting… ;) Thank you for reading!

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**Chapter Five: Mystery of the Missing Daylight**

_He laughed and replied brightly, a teasing glint and the reflection of the fire flickering in his warm brown eyes…_

"_You should see your hair right now."_

After she had made a rather rude hand gesture in reply to Satoshi's tease, she waited for him to turn and start cooking the only food not ruined, Ramen, using water from his water bottle. The moment his back was turned, she made a dive for her bag, retrieved her brush and furiously attacked her blue locks.

Satoshi snickered quietly as he stoked the fire and set the pot on the flames.

"Shut it," Hikari snapped, stowing her brush and mirror when her work was completed. She snapped off and tossed a piece of bark from the log, sending it ricocheting off the black-haired boy's shoulder.

He turned to her, laughing and brushing his shoulder off, and asked, "Why do ya care what your hair looks like? Me and you are the only ones here--"

"Bui!!" Buizel interrupted indignantly, spitting a bit of water at his face.

"--and Buizel," he finished, barely dodging the stream.

Hikari flushed, "I don't… It's just… Ugh! Isn't that Ramen done yet?"

"Ha, well, I'm flattered that you're tryin' so hard to impress me," Satoshi grinned over his shoulder cheekily.

Hikari was struck speechless at his cockiness for a moment, then huffed, "Yeah, right."

She stuck her tongue out at him, but winced as she irritated the cut on her lower lip. Her small, sharp intake of breath caught Satoshi's attention as he was removing the pot from the fire; he paused and looked up at her. She ran her tongue slowly over the lip once, and then brought her index finger to touch the cut carefully, pulling it back to check for blood, totally oblivious to the brown eyes watching her so intently.

Satoshi instantly regretted looking up. His limbs seemed to lock up again as he was captivated by the minute motion, finding himself staring at her lips.

Hikari, seeing that her cut was not bleeding, now felt Satoshi's eyes on her and looked past her finger to see him staring at her with a very peculiar look on his face.

"Hello…?" she waved her hand in front of him.

He jumped, accidentally shoving his stoking stick into the base of the fire and sending glowing embers up into the air…and in Hikari's direction.

"Hey!!" Hikari shrieked as a few of the hot ashes landed on her skirt and actually ignited the edge-- not to mention sparking her temper. Buizel swiftly doused the skirt with a water gun attack. Unfortunately this left Hikari's entire skirt soaking, and did nothing for her temper.

She glared at Satoshi, fuming.

Seeing the murderous look on her face, Satoshi nervously apologized, "Heh…uh… S-Sorry?"

Normally, she would have promptly bitten his head off for causing damage to her precious outfit, but seeing as she was stuck with only him and didn't have Takeshi to fall back on here, Hikari shut her eyes, took some deep breaths and calmed herself before responding.

"It's fine, let's… just eat," she ground out with a painfully forced smile affixed to her face. She tried not to think of the now miserably charred edge of her skirt.

Satoshi just looked bewildered and slightly frightened, then wordlessly separated the noodles into their two bowls.

He handed Hikari one bowl, then sat on the log next to her, leaving a very measurable distance between them.

Hikari poured a small portion of hers into another bowl and handed it to Buizel, who sat on the ground and slurped it up happily.

The two teens ate in silence, the popping and crackling of the fire the only sound besides Buizel enthusiastically lapping up its meal. Satoshi ate at an unusually slow pace (for him), seemingly still stunned by Hikari's strangely peaceful reaction to the destruction of her skirt; he kept glancing at her over his bowl. Maybe he was still expecting her to explode at any moment.

They finished and piled their bowls to the side; both finally fed, warm, and dry (mostly dry, in Hikari's case). Hikari yawned widely and stretched her sore muscles. Nothing sounded better than passing out in her nice, comfy, sleeping bag…

She blinked as she realized that the presence of just one sleeping bag and two people presented rather a problem. Knowing Satoshi, he would probably selflessly offer to rough it on the ground, but Hikari disliked that option. And, of course, one sleeping bag was much too small to fit the both of them in, unless… Figuring they'd be alright as it seemed to be a pretty warm night, she decided that she would simply spread the sleeping bag out and they could both fit on it by using just one side of it without covering up.

Satoshi chose that moment to go into the woods and… relieve himself, so Hikari took the opportunity to return Buizel to its Pokeball for the night (with its yawning consent), and retrieve and lay the (now mostly dry) sleeping bag on the grass. It still looked pretty small.

"Well, it ain't the Hilton…," she muttered to herself as she surveyed it.

"The what?" came a voice from right behind her.

"Eep!" She jumped and turned around to where Satoshi had emerged from the forest. His eyes drifted to the sleeping bag on the ground.

"Aw, where am I gunna sleep?" he asked in a whiny tone. So much for selflessness.

She pointed mutely at one side of the sleeping bag.

"…Then where are you gunna sleep?"

She pointed at the other side, perplexed. It took a moment for this to add up in Satoshi's head. Maybe it was a trick of the flickering fire-light, but his cheeks suddenly looked slightly redder.

He seemed very hesitant. Hikari noticed… and took it the wrong way. She put her hands on her hips.

"Well, I'm sure you must think its just terrible to have to sleep next to me, but despite running around in the woods with you all night, I don't think I smell _that_ horribly, so unless you've got a better idea, or another sleeping bag shoved up your--"

"Hey!" He interrupted, startled at her outburst, "I-I never said that!"

"Well, then grow up and go to sleep, coz that's what I'm gunna do!" She turned, knelt and started digging around her pack for her sleeping clothes, only to find that they were still quite wet.

_Looks like its sleeping in the clothes again_, she thought despairingly.

Then Satoshi's uneasy question came--

"Anou… I didn't mean that you-- I mean, are you sure _you're_ okay with...uh-- I'm a…"

Hikari laughed as she realized what he was saying, "…You're kidding, right? I trust you, Satoshi. No worries." He looked a little relieved. She gave an encouraging wink, sitting down on the blanket to take her boots off and her hair down.

It was really weird to hear Satoshi sounding so nervous about something-- Especially when it was only about being in semi-close proximity with her. In fact, Hikari thought, she hadn't ever noticed him uneasy around girls at all... and he usually just treated females, including herself, as if they were just one of the guys. Actually, he never really seemed to get nervous about much of anything at all… maybe before an important battle, but that was more excitement than nerves. Her thoughts were interrupted as she had to fight off a giant yawn.

Satoshi was still hovering awkwardly next to the sleeping bag.

Hikari just desperately wanted to go to sleep. Her limbs were aching and tired and even though she had drained her water bottle, her throat still hurt. She flopped back onto the blanket wearily, closing her eyes.

"Satoshi, I swear, I'll stay on my own side," she said with a hint of exasperation, opening one eye and seeing him still standing.

He gave a short, shaky sort of laugh and shrugged, finally sitting down on the edge and removing his shoes slowly. He lay down stiffly next to the blue-haired girl, staring up at the dark sky.

"Aren't you going to take your hat off?" said girl questioned, turning to face him. She sat up a little, supporting her head with her hand. The fire was dying down, making it more difficult to see the boy next to her. The moon seemed to have grown dimmer as well.

He shrugged, "Why?"

"Seems like it would be uncomfortable to sleep in… And anyway, you look better with it off," She replied casually.

Satoshi didn't reply. Hikari couldn't make out his expression in the dim light. She turned back onto her back and gazed at the sky like he was. After a moment, he removed his hat and placed it beside the blanket. She smiled.

_Now if only I could get him to comb his hair…_ she thought as her eyelids began to droop.

"Hey, Satoshi?" she asked through a yawn.

"Yea?" He looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Someone will find us tomorrow, right?" she was on the edge of sleep.

"Sure," he replied with false confidence. Something didn't seem quite right about this place to him, though. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Satoshi?"

"…Uh huh?"

"'Night."

"'Night, Hikari... and Happy Birthday," he replied uncharacteristically softly.

She made no reply but he could make out a small smile forming on her lips. Tearing his eyes away from those lips before they could trap him again, he turned his eyes back to the sky. Even though he knew he should be tired, somehow he just couldn't fall asleep.

Every time he was reminded of Hikari's presence beside him-- whether it was by her calm breathing as she slept, the occasional hint of her shampoo's fragrance in the breeze blowing over his face, or the faint glimmer her shiny hair gave when she shifted and it caught the dimming moonlight-- it caused his insides to feel like they were constricting, especially a certain spot in his chest. _What is wrong with me?_ He thought. He'd been around sleeping girls since he was ten. Heck, he'd been around fully conscious girls since he was ten and never had any problems like this, and conscious ones were much more dangerous… especially when angered. Not that he had ever had to share a sleeping bag with any of his past female traveling companions…

Hikari turned on to her side, facing him. She mumbled something in her sleep that sounded like gibberish with the word "contest" mixed in. Satoshi smiled.

_I guess Hikari had always been a little different from all of the other girls I've traveled with_, Satoshi continued his contemplation, _I mean, we don't fight as much as I did with Haruka... and definitely not as much as I did with Kasumi. She was pretty friendly from the start and we always did get along pretty well._

But what was happening now? Is this how Takeshi feels when he's around girls? Maybe it's just a part of getting older. Or maybe he had always been so wrapped up in his Pokemon and his dream of becoming the greatest master to ever notice the girls hanging around him all of the time. Now that he was Pokemon-less, it was like his blinders had been taken off… although it had always seemed harder to treat Dawn like 'one of the guys' like he had with the others. He hadn't ever even given it a thought before. Now it was like he had to make an effort to ignore the fact that she was a girl...And it wasn't just because she was constantly brushing her hair and concerning herself with how she looked, there was something else. And it wasn't that she wore an inescapably short skirt, either, though that certainly didn't help. There was some other mysterious element that set her apart from the others; something that forced him to see her not as 'one of the guys'…. Something that made his heart speed up and his skin tingle…Something that affected how he acted, felt, and thought when he was around her. And with a rather troubling feeling settling in the pit of his stomach, he finally drifted off to sleep…

Hikari woke up suddenly and as completely as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on her. She definitely felt cold enough to believe that someone had; she was shivering and her fingers felt numb. She snapped open her blue eyes… and saw nothing. She blinked a few times. Still, all there was in front of her eyes was blackness. She waved her hand in front of her face, but her eyes did not even register the movement. For one dreadful moment, she thought she might have gone blind. _Can seawater do that?!_ she thought frantically. She didn't think it could… she couldn't remember hearing anything like that, at least. She felt the sleeping bag still under her palms… so she was still in the same place. What had happened to the moon? And why was it so cold? If she could see, she was sure she'd be seeing her breath. And how long had she been asleep? It felt like it had been hours… shouldn't the sun be coming up yet? A sense of panic was starting to build…when a strange sound came from next to her, making her jump.

"Nughh…Nooo… Pikachu…"

It took a moment for Hikari to recognize the voice as Satoshi's. He sounded like he was pleading with someone. His voice was strained. Hikari's heart twisted at the sound. He sounded so sad! Did he really miss Pikachu that much? It had only been a day! She sat up and tried to see him, but she was still visionless.

"STOP IT!" He yelled suddenly. She jumped again at his sudden change of tone.

_Okay, so he's dreaming about something…_ Something hit Hikari in the face-- Satoshi's arm. He was flailing around in his sleep, it seemed.

"Ow! Hey, Satoshi, wake up!" she complained, swatting his arm away.

"Wait…wait! Don't… I'll…" his voice quieted.

Hikari groped blindly for the boy's shoulder to shake him awake. Instead of his shoulder, however, her fingertips met with something else. It was damp… she opened her hand and touched the surface with her palm… She realized that it must be his face… or his cheek, to be more exact.

_He's... He's crying? He must be having a really bad dream…Hope he's not too embarrassed when he wakes up… It's actually kind of sweet that he'd cry for his Pokemon._

She clumsily moved herself over to be sitting by his side in the dark. He seemed to have stilled for the time being. His breathing was still rather uneven. She could just barely make out his face in the dim glow that the embers of their campfire were still emitting. She could see the wet streaks on his cheeks slightly reflecting the small amount of light. She had an urge to wipe his cheeks, and she didn't resist it. He'd probably rather wake up and not know he'd cried anyway. She blushed after she was finished brushing the tears from his cheeks with her hand, realizing the intimacy of the action. She pulled her hand away. Good thing he was sleeping.

She tried again, "Satoshi?" No response.

"COME BACK! STOP IT!" He suddenly yelled.

Hikari felt one of his arms pass by her closely and dodged, barely avoiding another smack in the face.

_Alright, no more miss nice coordinator_.

She grabbed hold of his shoulders and shook none-too-gently, "SATOSHI, C'MON, WAKE UP!!!"

He sat up suddenly, and of course, in the dark Hikari didn't see it coming, so he hit his head on hers at full speed. She released his shoulders and cradled her head.

"Owwwww! Holy crap, what were you dreaming about, Satoshi, you nearly knocked me out! I think I might have a concussion…."

There was no answer, but Hikari could hear his ragged breathing. She could just make out his form, he was sitting up, but hunched over, his hair hanging in his face.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked in a softer tone, leaning over, trying hard to see him. She still pressed a palm to her throbbing forehead.

"It was so real…" was all he said, in a shaky voice. He was obviously not okay.

"Ano... hang on, I'll get you some water, okay?" She crawled over to her side of the sleeping bag and found her backpack in the dark (forgetting that they had already used the last of the water). As she picked it up and dug through it, something fell out. It emitted a neon glow…

A computerized female voice startled both teenagers as it began to speak, "DARKRAI: The Pitch-Black Pokemon. Its special ability, Bad Dreams, causes sleeping opponents to experience terrible nightmares while damaging their health. It's most powerful attack, Dark Void, traps the opponent in a bubble of extreme darkness, often causing the opponent to become confused."

"My PokeDex! I forgot all about it! Those things must be practically indestructible," Hikari exclaimed, "...Darkrai, though…does that mean… there's a Darkrai here?" she grew a little frightened at the thought. It didn't sound like it was a very pleasant Pokemon.

She picked up the glowing PokeDex and stared at the screen still displaying the entry for Darkrai. She pressed the button to check the time…

"Error," the computerized voice reported. Hikari frowned.

"That's it…," Satoshi said slowly.

Hikari looked up from the screen, "What's 'it'?"

She could now see him a little clearer thanks to the light coming from her PokeDex. Now she could see her breath and Satoshi's. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes and looking over at her. She was a little startled to see his eyes looking so different than they had just a few hours ago, when they had been sparkling with laughter-- now they looked hollow and dull. It gave her the chills.

"There was a Darkrai here… and it made me have that nightmare," he sounded a little angry now. He rubbed his arms roughly, also noticing the drop in temperature.

"Creepy…" Hikari commented, looking around as if expecting to see it still hanging out at their camp.

"It must be using Dark Void, too… look-- there's no stars or moon… It's probably daytime by now…It's gotta be pretty powerful to be covering the whole sky…" he looked up, frowning.

"Yeah, my PokeDex is all messed up. It can't tell what time it is. Do you think Darkrai did something to the time-flow, too?"

"I dunno… I didn't think Darkrai had that ability, but who knows…" he reached for his hat and jammed it on his head. Hikari was comforted to see a little of the life returning to his eyes.

"Do you think it's not safe here?" she asked him, worried. She really did not have any desire to revisit the bat-infested woods.

"I dunno… but I don't think we should go back to sleep," he replied grimly.

She gulped, "R-Really?"

He looked over at her with a serious expression, "Darkrai is known for its ability to make people have nightmares… and sometimes nightmares that they can't wake up from… ever. And I know I don't want to have another one like the one I just had…" He looked away.

She scooted back over fully onto the sleeping bag, hugging her knees to her chest. She set the PokeDex open in front of her to provide what light it could. She hoped it had a good battery.

"…Do you want to talk about it?" she asked carefully.

"No," he replied stiffly. _Okay, still sensitive. Imagine what he'd be like if he knew he'd cried…_

"Do you think we could get the fire started again?" she asked hopefully.

"There's no more wood."

"Oh yeah…"

She shivered. The air around them seemed to be pressing in on them, surrounding them with inky blackness and making goose bumps appear on Hikari's arms. The air had become very still and heavy. Her sense of hearing seemed to have been heightened-- every minute sound in the woods, every twig snap or leaf rustle, made her nearly jump out of her skin.

_Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake, just don't fall asleep_, was the mantra repeating in her head. She didn't realize she was so cold until she started to drift off, and was kept awake by the sound of her own chattering teeth.

Just as she was about to doze off again, there was a warm pressure on her left side. She jumped, and then looked over to find (to her surprise) that Satoshi had moved over to sit next to her. Their shoulders were touching. They were both sitting with their arms around their knees. His bare arm was pressed to hers.

Hikari sighed involuntarily at the warmth radiating from the boy now sitting close to her. She smiled a little at the considerate action, which were usually pretty rare from Satoshi. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, he was just… very dense sometimes.

"Satoshi?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah?" he kept his voice very low.

"How long do you think we'll have to stay awake?"

"I dunno… but I don't think it'll be a problem," he answered. Hikari could feel his arm muscles tense up.

"What? Why?" she whispered, confused.

"Because… don't freak out, but…," he started carefully...

"What!" she hissed back, panicked.

"There's something here… and I think we're gunna have to run," he whispered through his teeth.

Suddenly, the PokeDex started up again--

"DARKRAI: The Pitch-Black Pokemon…"

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To Be Continued.


	6. Mind Games

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Sorry if I occasionally slip and use the English names, I really do like the Japanese ones better, but I forget sometimes… like in the last chapter I know I did at least once, but I'm too lazy to go back and correct. LoL. Thank you for the reviews, they really do motivate me to write more and get it done more quickly. :)

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**Chapter Six: Mind Games**

"_There's something here… and I think we're gunna have to run," he whispered through his teeth._

_Suddenly, the PokeDex started up again--_

"_DARKRAI: The Pitch-Black Pokemon…"_

"SATOSHI!?!"

She had only blinked. He had been there, talking to her just a second ago. And now, he was gone.

She jumped when he had suddenly disappeared, right before her eyes. One second there, the next, gone. _What the hell!?_ She whipped her head around. _No way could he move that fast! And he wouldn't leave me behind!_

And she was alone in the dark wilderness. Coldness reclaimed her body as she was no longer sharing body heat with Satoshi. This made her sure that he really wasn't there and it wasn't just a trick of her eyes.

Frantic, she called out for him again, "Satoshi!?" It seemed as though her yell died as soon as it left her lips. It was the very air around her was stifling her voice.

A deep, velvety laughter seemed to surround her, reverberating as though it was actually bouncing around inside her skull. It started loud and menacing, then fragmented and echoed as it faded out. It sent a tremor through her body and it felt like the blood in her veins had been replaced with ice water. She sprung to her feet, quickly snatching Buizel's Pokeball from her bag. She clutched it close to her chest.

"Hello?" she called, blinking at the darkness around her. Her voice sounded small and scared. Her grip on the Pokeball was shaking.

_This must be the work of Darkrai… if I call Buizel out, he'll just get hurt. There's no way he could take on a Legendary Pokemon._

Hikari inched toward her bag again, not lowering her eyes from her surroundings, placing the ball back into the pouch, latching it shut and slipping the straps over her shoulders. Picking up the glowing Pokedex and holding it out in front of her, she got back into a standing position slowly.

"D-Darkrai…?" she called, trying not to sound frightened but failing. There was no answer. She listened hard for any indication of where it might be, watching the surrounding forest anxiously.

There was the very faint sound of waves crashing on shore, but she couldn't determine what direction it was coming from. Every sound she heard seemed to be coming from all directions.

"Darkrai, will you please give my friend back?" she tried lamely, speaking to no visible audience.

Suddenly, she heard flapping. And screeching. And it was getting louder.

_Oh, no._ She shifted her gaze to the dark sky, waiting, ready to sprint if needed. The muscles in her legs were tensed.

The strange laughter once again filled her head, coming from everywhere and from nowhere all at once.

"DARKRAI! I-I know you're doing this! Please stop and bring back my friend!" she yelled.

"…Attack," the deep, velvety voice issued a resonant command.

Hikari looked around in a panic, "What?! No, don't attack! Darkrai, what did I do?"

The flapping was coming closer, she could tell. But like all of the sounds, it seemed to be engulfing her from all directions. She didn't know what way it would be best to run. But it was too late for that.

"Satoshi…help?" she tried pathetically one last time before they were on her.

The flapping mass nearly suffocated her as it emerged from the treetops and rapidly filled the clearing. This time the screeching sound was terrible. It was louder than ever, and echoing. The assailants descended on her, knocking the Pokedex from her hand and hitting her roughly with their wings. As they screeched loudly in her ears, Hikari thought they must be using some kind of attack, because besides being annoying, it was causing her head to throb and her vision to blur.

"ZUBAT: The bat Pokemon. Its Sonic Distortion is known for its capability to cause headaches. GOLBAT: The bat Pokemon. Its screeches are so high pitched that it is dangerous for humans to hear," the computerized voice of Hikari's open Pokedex commented helpfully from the ground.

_Oh, great_, she brought her hands up to press over her ears. There seemed to be no stopping the high-pitched tones from invading her head and battering her brain. She was beginning to see double.

She ran.

She didn't know what direction, but her legs were carrying her as fast as they could through the tangled roots and scratching branches of the forest. It was dead quiet amongst the trees; the only sounds where her heavy breathing, her boots slamming the ground, and her heart thumping in her ears. She fell down once, but sprung up and took off again. She couldn't see in front of her face, the forest was pitch black. She saw the vague shapes of oncoming trees just in time to avoid running smack into them, zigging and zagging.

The faint sound of splashing water was growing closer, now that she was free of the clearing, her hearing seemed to have regained the ability to detect from what direction sounds were coming and she followed it.

She also detected the flapping wings were catching up with her. Not slowing, she turned looked up to see if they were visible through the leafy canopy.

Suddenly, there was nothing underneath her feet. Her boot fell on air. Her stomach lurched. She whipped her head back around just in time to see a steep, rocky slope, but it was too late to catch herself.

She gasped a, "Help!" before her she tumbled over the edge. Rocks were coming to meet her face quickly. Midair she ducked her head so that she would land on her shoulder instead. She grunted as she came into contact with the rocks, luckily for her they weren't sharp, but they were still hard and her shoulder suffered a rough blow. Gritting her teeth, she tumbled down the slope, seeing the flashes of dark sky and the ground alternatively, until she was brought to an unexpected and jarring halt by a rough yank on her left ankle.

"Ah!" she exclaimed as stars burst before her eyes.

It felt like the muscles in her ankle had been ripped apart; there was an intense pain-- she looked up and saw that her pink boot had caught in an outstretched tree root emerging from the hill.

She tilted her head back and looked down and saw that below her was… water.…The sound she had been running to that she had thought was the shore was the sound of the water rushing through this river.

Dangling from a cliff above the swiftly flowing water, she calculated her options quickly.

The blood was beginning to rush to her head and she didn't think she would be able to stay conscious much longer with her ankle screaming bloody murder.

_Well, looks like it's drown in the river or hang here upside down all day…Wait-, Buizel!_

"Buizel… come out!" she grunted, with much difficulty reaching back and pulling out its Pokeball from the pouch in her bag and releasing it into the water below.

Red light flashed, illuminating the area for a moment, before Buizel appeared amongst the rapids. It looked around, puzzled, then up at her.

"Bui?" It called up at its trainer, taking in her current situation. She tilted her head back uncomfortably to look down at her Pokemon. She figured it was about a fifteen foot drop…

"Buizel, can you use water gun to slow down my fall please?" she called urgently.

"Bui, Bui!" it nodded the affirmative, taking in a giant gulp up air and puffing its chest out.

"Here goes!" She painfully twisted her foot and was let loose, holding her breath.

She free-fell for a moment before a jet of water rushed up to meet her back, cushioning her and lowering her down to the water at a slower speed.

She dropped into the dark water with a small splash and Buizel immediately latched on to one of her arms. It dove under water and began tugging her to the bank on the other side, using its split tail like rotor blades. Hikari kept her head above the surface and tried to help by kicking, but her damaged ankle was hindering her greatly. The water was extremely frigid; Hikari's breath came out in puffs of mist across the water.

Finally, they reached the bank. Buizel helped her climb out, and then collapsed panting. Hikari hadn't done much of the work but she was still exhausted from running through the woods.

They both flopped on the shore, side-by-side on their backs under the dark sky, trying to catch their breath for a while, before Hikari let out a laugh which rose into the night air in a cloud of mist.

Buizel looked over at her, confused, thinking its trainer's head might have been damaged also.

She just smiled at it and kept laughing, "I really owe you, Buizel, I don't know what I can do, but when we get out of this mess, you name it, you got it!"

"Bui, Bui!" it replied happily. It attempted to get to its feet… only to totter a few steps and fell back down, knocked out from all the effort of toting Hikari across the river.

Hikari sat up quickly, "Oh! Sorry, Buizel, return!" She called it back to its Pokeball.

"Thank you," she kissed the ball and placed it carefully back into her (now once again soaking) backpack.

She shivered and looked around. The terrain seemed to have turned very rocky and flat, devoid of any plant life for as far as she could see, which wasn't all too far due to the darkness. A surface of fist-sized, oval shaped smooth stones stretched out in all directions.

"Where do I go now…?" she wondered hopelessly, wringing out her hair and clothes as best she could. _Wet again… I'm starting to really hate being wet. When we get out of this, I'm never going near water again!_

She looked back down the riverbank. The moon was glittering on the surface of the water.

"Wait! The moon…?" she looked up. The sky was no longer blank and black, but held a full moon shining with pale white light and was dotted with winking stars. It comforted Hikari a little. _Maybe this means Darkrai is done with its tricks… but I'm still lost…_

She cautiously got to her feet, keeping most of her weight on her right one, spreading her arms out like a trapeze artist to keep her balance. Her eyes slowly traveled down the length of the river.

She started when she spotted a figure standing a ways down the bank. Straining her eyes to pick up details, she recognized the hat and clothes…Her heart leapt with joy.

_Oh thank Ho-oh!_

"Satoshi!" she cried in utter relief. She put on a burst of speed, her ankle throbbing but she broke into a staggering run despite the sharp pain that spiked up her leg with each impact.

"Satoshi!" she called louder. He still didn't turn. Perhaps he couldn't hear her. She was so happy she could almost laugh again. She slowed as she reached him, chest heaving and skin shining with water droplets. Her limbs were trembling with exhaustion and her ankle was shaking violently when she put weight on it. She limped the last few feet to him.

_He must have heard me coming…?_ She approached cautiously. When she was one foot away from him, staring at the back of his hat, he still hadn't turned around.

"Satoshi…?" she panted. She lifted a hand to place it on his shoulder to get him to face her…

Unexpectedly, and moving with unnatural speed, his hand was at her throat. She gasped and gripped the hand encircling her neck and squeezing her windpipe.

"Sat--osh--!," she choked, as he lifted her bodily so that only the tips of her boots were scraping the rocky ground. He gave a harsh squeeze of his hand.

Her lungs were on fire and colorful spots were dancing before her eyes. She had already been out of breath when she reached him, and now her lungs were positively screaming for oxygen. Her eyes were blurring with tears, but she could still make out his face and she realized that something was definitely wrong, besides the fact that he was currently strangling her; it was his eyes. They were completely black. Not even a glimpse of the warm brown that usually comforted her. There was a smirk on his lips that made Hikari's heart jump. It looked so sinister, like he was enjoying himself, hurting her. She whimpered in despair, unable to pry his steely grasp away from her poor neck.

The spots were closing in on her vision. She coughed, desperately trying to get some air into her lungs but receiving none.

Wildly, she swung her uninjured foot forward and kicked Satoshi solidly in the shin.

Out of sheer surprise, he dropped her.

She sat on the rocky ground at his feet for a moment, dazed and coughing violently, trying to recuperate as quickly as possible. Her blurred vision finally refocused on Satoshi's shoes. She sucked in the cool air to calm her burning lungs. Her brain urged her to get up and away from the boy that had just attacked her.

Head pounding and neck aching, she obliged her brain and struggled to her feet, swaying on the spot.

Before she could think, she was ducking as Satoshi swung an open hand at her, as if trying to smack her.

"Satoshi, w-what's wrong with you? It's me, Hikari!" she cried, jumping back and away from him, unsteadily landing with most of her weight on her good foot.

He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, then advanced on her still not speaking, but his face holding the eerie smirk once again. It reminded Hikari of the way a panther looked when it would stalk its prey on those animal documentaries. She gulped. _What do I do? I don't want to hurt him… but he obviously wants to hurt me! If I try to run with this ankle, he'll easily catch up!_

He moved to strike her again, now curling his hand into a fist, but she ducked under it.

"Sat--!" she started, but was cut off.

Without warning, he swung again, this time making contact with the side of Hikari's face. Hard.

She yelped and actually fell back down on her bottom from the force of the blow. Tears stung her blue eyes. She put a hand to her cheek, shocked.

"Satosh-- Darkrai! Darkrai, stop it! Please!" she pleaded desperately to the night sky, scrambling away from Satoshi over the (thankfully) smooth pebbles on the ground. He was still advancing in a menacingly slow way, as if to prolong her terror, knowing she couldn't get away.

_There is no way Satoshi would ever behave this way… Its gotta be Darkrai! Why is it doing this? I have to think of a way to snap him out of it!_

She was startled out of her thoughts by Satoshi's faint, elongated shadow overlapping her. She stared up at him, shaking physically, due to several factors: she was damp and cold, her muscles were tired, and she was actually frightened of the boy approaching her. Satoshi smirked again and let out a quiet, menacing laugh as he came closer. It was still Satoshi's voice, but that laugh... It was a strange sound to hear…and it had an odd effect on Hikari. For some reason her heart skipped and her pulse raced. She was startled at her own reaction. Her cheeks burned, her hands flew to them in wonder. Satoshi's evil laugh had given her the same type of feeling as Shinji's scrutinizing glare had before.

_Okay, now is a really weird time to be feeling … This isn't right, is it? …. Satoshi?_ Her eyes flew back up to him, as if his face held the answer.

He now stood directly over her, seemingly waiting for her to get back up. She stared up into his blank eyes, wishing that she could see that warm brown instead of this cold black.

As she wished this, her heart gave another jump. Her mind made up, she sprung into action. As fast as she could manage, she got to her feet before him, and threw herself at him.

He braced himself as if expecting an attack…

But Hikari simply wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on as tightly as she could, burying her face next to his neck, eyes shut tight, hoping…_Please, please snap out of it Satoshi! _

She was so weak and her ankle was shaking so badly that she doubted she would be able to stay standing if he pulled away. But he didn't. He simply stood stiffly still in her sudden embrace.

She could feel him begin to tremble slightly.

"Please," she nearly sobbed, tightening her grip on the back of his vest. The scent of pine and firewood met her nose as she breathed in at his neck. There was a moment of silence.

"…Hikari?" came Satoshi's strangely strangled voice. His normal voice was comforting to hear.

Hikari felt the vibrations in his chest as he spoke. She pulled back to look at his face, and let out a happy sigh of relief when her watery blue met with his once again inviting brown looking back at her.

He simply stared at her in wonder, not hugging back and not moving, as if his hands were frozen to his sides.

He tore his gaze away from her face to take in their surroundings, "Where… Where are we? How did we get here?"

She found herself suddenly so tired, she couldn't even bring herself to answer (not that she knew the answer anyway)… her grip slipped from his shoulders and she collapsed to the ground on her bottom. Her ankle was agonizing and her shoulder had started to complain as well. She should not have run. The combined pain was enough to make her feel nauseated. She took a deep, shuddering breath.

_Why am I so tired? I felt like I was going to fall asleep just standing there… I have been running around a lot but usually I have a little more stamina than this! I can barely keep my eyes open…_

Startled, Satoshi followed her down, on one knee beside her and placing his shaking hands lightly on her shoulders. When one of his fingers brushed over her neck, Hikari jumped, involuntarily hissing in pain. He pulled back his hand quickly, looking at her in question.

She drowsily followed Satoshi's eyes with hers as they moved to her neck.

"What happened? ...W-who did that to you?" he asked, seeing an ugly set of bruises marring her pale neck, and fearing the answer he had a sinking feeling was coming.

"…Well… it was...you," she answered wearily, but then shook her head as he opened his mouth to say something, "I think… Darkrai has been messing with us. Well, you more than me, obviously. It was…," she took a deep breath and blinked hard to stay awake, "It was like you were possessed. Your eyes…," she trailed off.

He looked deeply troubled first, then angry, "I wonder what Darkrai's problem is…"

Hikair's head began to nod forward but Satoshi startled her back to alertness.

"H-Hey! You can't fall asleep! What if you get trapped in your nightmares by Darkrai?" he shook her by the shoulders a bit.

She shook her head and blinked again, trying to clear her mind of the sleep that was creeping in.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked, looking around again.

She shook her head, "Just ran here… the bats came back…," she mumbled.

"Well… C'mon, let's try to at least try to get to somewhere with some cover… Looks like its gunna rain," he added, glancing up at the sky. Hikari looked up, too, and was surprised to see that the clear sky from a few moments ago was now blanketed in dark, rolling clouds.

She heard Satoshi get to his feet, then a hand obscured her vision. She blinked at it. Satoshi waited for her to take it and get up.

"I... don't think I can," she said resignedly, staring at the rocks before her.

"Huh? Why not?" he asked, confused, dropping his hand for the moment, "Hikari?"

"Well, I'm no Nurse Joy, but I think I might have a sprained ankle or torn something. All I know is I'm not going to be running any marathons tonight," she replied, still studying the rocks. She hated appearing weak in front of him. In front of anyone really… but being weak in front of Satoshi was a little bit worse in her mind for some reason.

"… Did I--?" he started to ask.

She looked up fast, "No, no, that part was just clumsy me," she smiled faintly.

_But I'm betting there will be a nasty bruise where you got me with that right hook…_ she thought to herself.

He looked relieved.

"Oh. Good. I-I mean, not good that you're clumsy. I mean! You're not, but I'm just glad it wasn't--"

"Satoshi," she halted him in her tired voice.

"So…Can you stand?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck like he usually did when he was nervous or uncomfortable. She didn't think it would really help her situation to have her stand up and fall back down again, but she didn't voice it.

She utilized every ounce of energy she had left to heave her debilitated body to a standing position and hold it there without toppling over.

"How am I supposed to get anywhere like this? Maybe you should leave me and…," she started, pausing as Satoshi walked directly in front of her and turned around.

She blinked at him, staring at the back of his neck.

"What are you doing?" she whispered at him in a tone that sounded as if there were people watching and he was doing something embarrassing.

"Get on," he said over his shoulder.

She didn't move.

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yea, we gotta get outta here somehow, don't we?" he looked back at her over his shoulder, smiling a little. Hikari immediately decided that she much preferred this smile to the evil smirk he had before.

She nodded once and carefully climbed onto his back, wishing she wasn't acutely aware of his warm hands under her bare thighs. His warm, dry back was comfortable against her damp, chilly body, though. She tried to stay awake for a little, but after a while she couldn't hold her head up any longer. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, arms dangling loosely in front of him.

"Satoshi… did you know that you are amazing?" she sighed sleepily in gratitude.

He laughed a little awkwardly at the compliment, "Sure did!"

She smiled. She deeply inhaled, smelling firewood and pine again.

"Hey, don't fall asleep though," he warned.

"Yeah…," she mumbled, lifting her head back up to rest her chin on his shoulder.

Satoshi was secretly glad that she was small and easy to carry, because he too was beginning to feel very tired. And he too was extremely aware of the fact that Hikari's bare legs were currently pressed against his sides and his hands were touching the smooth skin just before her skirt... He tried desperately to steer his brain away from the subject. It was making his heart race and his insides constrict again. He swallowed audibly, trying to focus on where he was going.

He felt guilty and angry when he thought of the ugly bruises on Hikari's neck. He hated himself for being too weak to resist Darkrai's control and angry at Darkrai for causing them so much trouble for no apparent reason. He, at least, couldn't think of anything they had done wrong.

He privately promised himself to make Darkrai regret it.

Just as a bolt of lightning flashed and the rain began to fall in big, wet drops, Satoshi spotted a cave that looked like it would serve as a decent shelter. The cold rain splattering on the top of her head woke Hikari up a little more.

Her 'ride' reached it just as the rain really started to come down. Hikari carefully lowered herself off his back and slumped to the dusty rock floor in exhaustion, resting against the back wall of the cave. She stretched her legs out in front of her, carefully setting her left foot down with a wince. At least it was nice and dry in here. She stretched her arms over her head.

He sat across from her, telling her that they would need to watch one another and make sure the other didn't fall asleep. She nodded tiredly, yawning. They faced each other across the dark cave, lit up by the occasional lightning.

It was quite awkward staring at each other for such a long period of time. Satoshi seemed to have picked Hikari's shoes to focus on, but Hikari didn't restrain her eyes from roaming over Satoshi's features. She had always thought he was a pretty attractive person but never really considered… _Well I never considered that I might feel… like I might want to… _Her eyes drifted to his lips and she immediately shut the thoughts down, hoping he couldn't see that her cheeks had suddenly grown quite hot. She was sure he would only ever think of her as a friend and a friendship with Satoshi was an excellent thing to have and she would not risk it for these stupid stupid feelings, she thought resolutely. _I don't even know what it is that I'm feeling anway…_

Her eyes drifted back up to his, and she was slightly startled to find them staring back at her. Another flash lit up the cave and illuminated the brown eyes she liked so much, creating amber highlights in them for just a second.

Satoshi had been trying to stare at only her pink boots, but his eyes were pulled up to her face by some unknown gravitational force. A flash of lightning lit the cave and illuminated her sapphire blue eyes. They looked guarded… as if she was hiding something.

After a second more of their eyes being locked on each other's, they both looked away quickly.

Satoshi went back to studying her boots. She concentrated on his hat.

_This is going to be a long night…_ both teenagers thought.

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To Be Continued.


	7. Sweet Dreams

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: This chapter I dedicate to: Strawberry-Champagne, skatoula, and Ard3n for their lovely reviews! Anyway, you really gotta watch the Japanese version of D/P just 'cause the voices are so much better. Then pretend it's those voices speaking here. ;P Sorry this took so long! I didn't like writing the stupid explanations and they aren't great IMO but I got through them at least.

Reviewer Poll: Who do YOU want to make the first move--Hikari or Satoshi? Vote now! ;)

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**Chapter Seven: Sweet Dreams**

_Satoshi went back to studying her boots. She concentrated on his hat._

'_This is going to be a long night'… both teenagers thought._

Rain was coming down in sheets outside of the surprisingly well-protected hole carved in the side of the rocky slope. The rain created a watery curtain to the entrance of the cave, flowing rapidly as the sky dumped what seemed like gallons upon gallons of icy wetness down on the earth.

As she gazed absently at Satoshi's hat as she had been for the past 5 minutes, Hikari wondered idly if the river would reach them if it overflowed. After all, they were only a few feet away from the water's edge…

After she'd felt like she'd probably memorized every stitch on Satoshi's hat, Hikari spent the next ten minutes exploring the unremarkable cave with her eyes. _Hmm… rocks... More rocks… _Her eyes wandered from the uneven but smooth, gray surface of the cave floor to the low ceiling… She figured there'd be just enough room for her to stand up without bumping her head. Speaking of her head… it was throbbing uncomfortably again. Her ankle was also throbbing; in fact the throbbing of her head and ankle were annoyingly perfectly in time with each other.

She squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them, hoping to somehow blink away the annoying pulsating ache.

She heard Satoshi shift slightly as she shut her eyes; he'd probably thought she was going to fall asleep. Her eyes were drawn back to him at the movement.

He was looking back at her warily. She smiled a little. As if he had been caught doing something wrong, he gave a somewhat guilty-looking smile and a small shrug. Their eyes froze upon each other once more.

For some unknown reason, neither one of them felt compelled to look away when their eyes caught one another's for the second time. They simply looked at each other, as if waiting for the other to say something; neither of them did.

The two teenagers were excruciatingly aware of each other's presence; even the sounds of their breathing echoed loudly in the cave. Hikari felt like he could probably hear her heart beat by now; it felt as though it was pounding against her ribcage. Satoshi's guilty smile had faded from his lips. His expression was now indecipherable. Hikari thought he looked like he was trying to figure something out… like he was trying to solve a puzzle or something as he stared back at her.

A flash of lightning once again illuminated the cave for a split second, and Hikari jumped, effectively killing the moment. A loud clap of thunder followed.

At that moment, her ankle also gave a nasty throb, earning a pained (and none-too delicate) exclamation from her as she grasped her boot. The shoe had grown uncomfortably tight on her foot and seemed to be squeezing and agitating her injury. She stared at the boot. It looked the same size. Maybe her foot had swollen up or something, she reasoned.

"Maybe you should take it off."

Hikari jumped at the sound of Satoshi's voice after the incredibly silent 15 minutes that had just stretched between them. Her eyes moved back up to his tan face and she nodded wordlessly at the suggestion.

"I'll try…," she muttered mostly to herself as she carefully hunched over and grasped the end of her boot. She gave it a small tug.

Spots burst in front of her eyes and her breath left her-- for a moment she thought she was going to pass out on the spot. A jolt of agony had wracked her ankle when she pulled at the boot. She stifled a whimper by pressing her lips together tightly and clenching her eyes shut for a moment. Leaning back on her palms, she let out a deep breath as soon as the pain had once again returned to a tolerable level. She hoped she hadn't caused further damage.

She opened her eyes with a slight start to see that Satoshi had moved to kneel by her boot.

"What?" she asked, in trepidation over his contemplative expression.

"It's probably all swollen up. I think it'll feel a lot better once we get this boot off. I think it might be cutting off your circulation," he explained, "If only we had something to cut it…" He looked around the cave.

"No way are you cutting my boot! I love these boots!" she countered, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly and pouted.

Ash sighed in an irritated sort of way and grumbled, "Just like a girl… put fashion before health…"

Hikari huffed indignantly at the remark, about to retort when her ankle was again enveloped in a fit of stabbing pain. A sharp intake of breath hissed through her clenched teeth. Her fingernails dug into her forearms as she gripped them tighter.

Satoshi looked up at her pained face, "That's it, I'm takin' it off," he declared, making to grab the boot. He carefully placed his hands on the shoe-- one at the heel and one on the toe.

"Ready?" he asked, glancing up at her. She shook her head fervently, but braced herself against the wall of the cave nonetheless, closing her eyes tight. Satoshi took it as a cue to get on with it.

He tried to slowly maneuver it off at first, but it wasn't coming easily. He tried twisting it a little. Hikari did not appreciate him taking his time.

"OUCH, OUCH! Holy--!! Just _do_ it!" she yelped. Tears leaked from her closed eyes. Each little adjustment of the boot only sparked another throb. She sucked in a breath and held it.

"Okay, if you say so!" Ash yanked at the boot so hard that it flew off and he fell back on his bottom. Hikari let her breath out in a whoosh of air, slumping against the wall, fearing she might lose consciousness.

Satoshi tossed the shoe carelessly to the side and sat back up grinning at the accomplished task, "See? That wasn't so…"

He trailed off when he saw his blue-haired companion trying to steady her breathing and stem the flow of tears that streamed from her eyes against her will. She looked pretty distressed. He hadn't realized she was hurt so bad. Maybe he would have insisted on just cutting the boot off instead if he'd known she was gunna cry about it…

"Uh, are you okay?" he asked quietly, observing warily. She wiped at her eyes.

"Fine," she tried to sound normal but her voice quaked a little. She avoided his gaze which she could practically feel resting on her.

"Sorry, I didn't think it would--" he started, but she cut across him--

"It's fine, it's not your fault. Thanks for the help, anyway," she managed in a calmer tone. _Why? Why do I always act so weak around him? He must think I'm a total spaz. I mean, it's probably not even broken, and here I am being a big crybaby over it…_

"Shimatta…," she muttered quietly to herself, angrily scrubbing her cheeks free of evidence.

They sat in uncomfortable quiet for a few moments. Hikari cautiously wiggled her left set of toes. At least her foot did feel a lot better now. The cool breeze coming through the cave entrance made her shiver but soothed her ankle. She sighed quietly.

"Hey Hikari, can I ask you somethin'?" Satoshi broke the silence, clasping his hands behind his head and leaning back in an effort to appear casual.

She nodded silently, still mentally berating herself for crying. Even though he wasn't looking directly at her, he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and posed his question, gazing out of the mouth of the cave through the water curtain.

"Why do ya care so much about crying in front of me?" he sounded genuinely perplexed.

She looked at him in surprise. Hikari opened her mouth to reply-- then shut it. _How weird of Satoshi to notice something like that. Usually he seems so dense about feelings._

"I… I guess it's because… I care a lot about what you think of me," she sighed, not looking at him, "And if I'm just blubbering all of the time I guess I thought you'd probably think I was just a weak crybaby. I mean, I know you've got a lot more experience than me so I guess I kinda feel like I've gotta do my best to keep up with you. And Takeshi, too, for that matter."

It was weird for Hikari to say these things out loud finally when she had been thinking them privately for the whole year that she had been traveling with the two older boys. They were both a few years older than her (Satoshi's birthday was coming up in a few weeks), so she felt like any mistakes she made probably made her look even more stupid to them since they had so much more experience.

"Hikari."

She looked up, feeling self-conscious. Satoshi was smiling at her crookedly. A small smile of her own blossomed automatically in reaction to his. _Why did I never realize how much I love that smile?_ Startled at herself, she quickly blinked that thought away. Far away.

"Of course we've got more experience-- but you just started and you're awesome! And no one cares if you gotta cry! Everybody cries sometimes, I guess. Not me, of course (he added hastily)… and come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen Takeshi cry… but--But once Pikachu cried over a broken bottle of Ketchup!"

Hikari sniffled, smiling at his unintentionally humorous attempt at comforting her, "…Thanks, Satoshi."

He shrugged, grinning awkwardly and rubbing the back of his neck again.

It was quiet.

Hikari sighed heavily.

Satoshi readjusted himself to a more comfortable position leaning against the wall, hat slipping down slightly over his eyes.

And they slipped back into a heavy silence punctuated by the howling wind and the pounding rain, and occasional clap of thunder.

Hikari chose to keep eyes to herself this time, mostly on her own feet that were splayed out in front of her. Her foot did feel better but there was still a dull, pounding ache. She thought it she stared hard enough at it, she might even be able to see it pulsing.

Another immeasurably long stretch of time passed. They would call one another's names out every once in a while to make sure the other wasn't sleeping.

It now had been a few minutes since either one of them had spoken.

The blue-eyed girl was nodding dangerously but was jolted back to full consciousness by a helpful throb of her ankle.

Suddenly, Hikari noticed that Satoshi's breathing had slowed a bit… almost like he was…

Hikari jumped, stomach instantly filled with the feeling of heavy dread, "No! Satoshi, wake up this instant!" She scrambled quickly over to him and shook him by the shoulders roughly. He was unresponsive though, slumped against the cave wall.

"No, no, no! Satoshi, wake UP!" she was going to shake him again, but all of a sudden, she was completely paralyzed. Her eyes widened. _It's here…._

She didn't have any power over her body as some invisible force controlled it, and she was brought into a standing position, hovering slightly above the cave floor. All of her muscles were forcefully tightened, creating a very stiff posture.

As if an invisible thread had been tied around her chest, she was yanked from the cave by the force, out into the pouring rain and back in front of the river that was now swollen with rainwater and raging violently. The sky was dark and covered with rolling thunderclouds.

Hikari tried to look around with her eyes but found that she could only stare straight ahead. It didn't matter though, because what she had been searching for appeared directly in front of her. She wanted to scream but held it back.

Darkrai shook its sharp finger in a way that seemed to say "Tsk, tsk" as it finally materialized in front of Hikari's eyes for the first time. Its dark body was nearly indistinguishable in the dark and stormy atmosphere. All but its eerily glowing blue eyes, blood red collar, and white billowing shape atop its head blended in with its surroundings.

"D-Darkrai," was all Hikari could manage. She gulped and stared, as its ghostly-looking figure seemed to waft towards her. Rain was streaming down her skin. She was already soaked to the bone but she could not move any of her limbs even an inch. Her arms were locked to her sides and her head was set straight forward. Her hair was soaked and limply sticking to her face and forehead. The water was running in small rivulets down her arms and legs. Her one bootless foot felt awkward and her sock was getting wet.

It simply nodded once in response to her saying its name. Hikari wondered why it wasn't talking this time.

"W-What do you want?" Hikari asked tremulously, yelling over the loud rain and thunder. Darkrai seemed to shrug carelessly, and then pointed a finger over towards the cave. It began to glow an eerie red colour…

Hikari heard a terrible noise; it was an anguished yell. And it was Satoshi. Her eyes strained to look back at the cave where she could still make out Satoshi's form struggling in his sleep. _He must be having some terrible nightmares! _Hikari felt a twinge of anger underneath her fear.

"D-Darkrai," the terrified girl yelled in the strongest voice she could, tearing her eyes away from the horrible sight of Satoshi in such obvious torment, "Please, please stop it!"

The Dark Pokemon paused in front of the captive girl at her plea. If she could see its mouth (_did it even have a mouth?) _she was sure it would be smirking some sinister smile. It seemed to be amused by causing them distress. Hikari's head was once again filled with the dark echoing laughter.

Anger was building inside Hikari. Her clenched fist began to tremble, unnoticed by both her and Darkrai.

Its eyes seemed to flash a more intense icy blue in delight. It returned to circling her lazily. Hikari followed its form with her eyes until it disappeared behind her. It sent shivers down her spine when she couldn't see it, but still feel its presence. Rain still poured from above. She held her breath in anticipation of its next move. _This is my chance… I'll show Satoshi I'm not just a useless tagalong and I'll save him! He's always doing brave stuff like this for other people, right? Well here's my chance to do something for him!_

Satoshi let out another yell. Darkrai began to drift over in his direction, losing interest in Hikari.

Her heart twisted at the sound of Satoshi and she thought as hard as she could about moving her body and breaking whatever kind of spell Darkrai was using to keep her immobile. _For Satoshi!_ She thought hard, determined, and miraculously, she instantly fell to the rain soaked ground, free of the invisible binds.

She looked up, hastily pushing her heavy, rain-soaked hair back from her eyes. Darkrai hadn't noticed anything, but it was now reaching out and about to touch Satoshi with one of its monstrous black claws. Hikari didn't want to think what would happen if it touched him.

She did the first thing she could think of—she picked up a decent-sized rock from the ground and hurled it from her slippery grip and at the Pitch-Black Pokemon as hard as she could.

By chance, Hikari happened to have incredibly good aim, and the rock stuck the back of Darkrai's head.

Hikari held stock still in anticipation of its reaction. _Okay, maybe not the best idea!_

She jumped when it slowly turned to face her. Its piercing blue eyes flashed, and suddenly it was right in front of her.

She yelped in surprise and backed up fast, trembling visibly now.

She gulped, "L-leave him alone!" She couldn't even fake not being scared this time. She looked up into its eyes, making a meager attempt at feigning bravery.

The Pokemon's demeanor had shifted from mild and amused to very delicate and lightly ominous, like it could change to threatening and angry at any moment. It shook its head once, laughing again. It chilled Hikari to her core.

It reached a large black claw out to her. It looked like it was going to grab her head—somehow she knew she didn't want that to happen, so she reflexively slapped the hand away with as much force as possible.

"Leave us alone! I'll—I'll fight you if I have to!" she took a fighting stance, complete with fists held up in front of her face. Her ankle throbbed plaintively when she put weight on it but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind.

Hikari knew she was being extremely stupid, but for whatever reason, she didn't seem to be as affected by Darkrai's controlling or nightmare powers as Satoshi was, which made her feel just a little bit braver. Plus, it was worth it to distract Darkrai from hurting Satoshi any more.

Without warning, it plunged one of its giant, clawed hands directly into Hikari's front, seemingly grasping for her very heart. Her mouth fell open in a gasp. Her firsts dropped limply to her sides. Her respiratory system locked up at the intrusion. Her lungs seemed to ice over. Multicolored spots covered her vision for a moment and she thought she was going to pass out or die or something.

Just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. As Darkrai withdrew its hand, it felt to Hikari as if the air was being sucked from her lungs and they were deflating. Her heart felt like a block of ice beating in her chest and her fingers felt numb with cold. The force of the claw being withdrawn seemed to pull her with it as it left her body, causing her to fall limply forward. Her knees hit the rocks and she leaned forward to rest her spinning head on the ground before her.

Hikari was coughing and gasping for breath, shuddering as the icy chill from whatever Darkrai had just done and the heavy rain permeated her body. _What just happened? Oh, I am so stupid, what did I do? What was I thinking, making a legendary Pokemon pissed at me?! Ugh… I think I might puke…_

She held a hand over her abdomen and slowly sat up again, breathing unsteadily.

She held her head up and looked around her. Darkrai was nowhere to be seen. Either it had left or it was invisible somewhere. She took a deep breath and tried to swallow down her nausea. She noticed the raindrops weren't falling as heavily as they had been and patches of starry sky were peeking through the clouds above. It looked like it finally might be getting lighter as well.

"What a night," she groaned to herself, "I can't wait to get to a Poke Center and sleep in a nice room and be dry for once!" She used the thought of a nice, warm bed with soft pillows and blankets as her motivation to get to her feet.

As she hauled herself up, she turned to head back to the cave to see how Satoshi was doing—only to find him missing… for the second time that night. Her heart dropped into her stomach region. She ran as fast as she could in sort of a one-legged hop over to the cave entrance. She peered inside and saw nothing but the smooth gray stone, her backpack, and her discarded pink boot.

She wanted to cry in exhaustion, frustration, pain, and exasperation. _Where could Darkrai have taken him now? I'm so tired and cold… I just want to take a long nap…_

She subconsciously clutched her vest over her heart. Then looked down at her hand as she noticed she what she had done. It felt like her heart was barely beating and the area she knew it was in her chest still felt very cold inside. This worried her a little, but she hoped it would just go away and it was only some kind of lingering effect of whatever attack Darkrai had used on her. Anyway, there were more important matters at hand, like finding Satoshi and getting the hell off of this island.

The rain had lightened to a cool, misty drizzle and most of the clouds had dissipated. She looked up at the sky and sighed heavily.

"What now?!" She yelled out to no one in particular. There was no response but the sound of the gushing river. She looked around the area once more to make sure Darkrai had left the scene for good, then reached into her pack for Buizel's Pokeball.

"Come on out, Buizel," she said without her usual spunk, tossing the ball out. She hoped he had recovered enough from his rest in his Pokeball to at least try to help her find Satoshi or a way off the island to go get help.

In a red flash, Buizel appeared. It rubbed its eyes tiredly.

"Sorry to interrupt your rest, Buizel, but I—" Hikari stopped. Buizel had dropped to all fours and was growling. The hair on its back was standing up slightly as it looked around, as if searching for an enemy.

"Buizel? What is it?" Hikari asked, alarmed and looking around for Darkrai to appear. She watched Buizel look around, but it seemed to find nothing. It then stopped its gaze on its trainer.

"Bui!" it barked at her. She jumped.

"Me?" She pointed at herself confusedly, staring down at the otterish Pokemon.

"Bui, Bui!" it growled at her.

"Whoa, Buizel, calm down, it's just me, Hikari! Are you okay?"

Buizel didn't reply, but instead it took a deep breath—Hikari recognized what it was about to do, but before she could react, Buizel spat out a powerful jet of water from its mouth straight at her.

She closed her eyes and shielded herself with her arms. But the water never came.

She cracked open one eye, and gasped. Some sort of force field encircling her entire body was deflecting the water stream. It was like a swirling black bubble surrounding her and it was emitting a high-pitched echoing noise sort of like the reverberations of two pieces of metal clanging together.

Buizel ran out of steam and stopped attacking. The bubble faded from view immediately. The water Pokemon stood up and seemed to be satisfied and also troubled with what it had revealed to its trainer. Hikari was confused to say the least. She guessed it was another effect of Darkrai's attack. _Some kind of force field?_ _What kind of attack could this be? I've never heard of anything like this…_

"What is it?" she wondered aloud.

"Bui," Buizel gave a shrug. Or as close to a shrug as a Pokemon can get.

Hikari sighed again. Every part of her boy was freezing cold, soaked, aching, stinging, or a combination of the previous. All she wanted to was take a nice, long, hot shower and go to sleep. She was determined to find Satoshi and get off of this island.

"Yosh!" she said resolutely, "Buizel, let's find Satoshi and get out of here!" regaining a little of her usual spark.

"Bui Zel!" her Pokemon replied enthusiastically.

"So, which way should we start? Can you smell anything helpful?"

Buizel sniffed the air this way and that… and came up with nothing. Hikari face faulted.

"That's okay, we'll just go back the way we came… at least we can find camp from here. Then maybe we can find the shore from there!" Buizel nodded. Hikari's spirits lifted a little, now that she at least had some sort of a plan.

They started off walking (hobbling in Hikari's case) down the length of the riverbank to try to find the place she had fallen from the cliff and see if she could get back up there or go around somehow to get back to their campsite.

Just as they reached the area Hikari recognized as where she had fallen (she saw the tree root she had gotten her foot stuck in), several things happened in quick succession.

The first thing Hikari noticed as she surveyed the steep rocky slope was the bar of sunlight slowly creeping up the stones. She turned and saw the sun was coming up, and it was just clearing the horizon.

_Finally, its daytime!_ Just as Hikari thought this, a bright flash of blinding white light filled her vision. She heard Buizel exclaim its name in surprise next to her. She couldn't see anything—then she couldn't feel anything.

The ground seemed to have dropped right out from underneath her feet. She couldn't feel anything solid. Then she started falling, very fast it seemed like, but she couldn't tell because all she could see what whiteness.

And then nothing.

----------

She opened her eyes slowly. Whiteness. For a moment she thought she was still in the white void, falling, until she realized there was something very solid underneath her. And it was soft. She blinked a few times, willing her eyes to adjust and un-blur.

She looked down to see that she was actually lying on a bed. It felt a little damp, like she had been sweating in her sleep or something. _Gross… _She did feel a bit like she had just come out of a fever or something, though.

She lifted her head up and around to take in her other surroundings.

"I'm at… a Poke Center?" she questioned aloud after adding up the white walls, bed, and Pokeballs and various medical supplies on the surrounding shelves. There was a sickeningly happy and cute portrait hanging on the wall depicting Blissey nurse holding a needle.

There was no one else in the room. She looked down at herself. She was still wearing her clothes (sans boots), which were now tragically ripped, dirty, and burned. She felt something stiff around her leg and looked down to see white bandages wrapped securely around her ankle. She also found her shoulder to have some bandages on it, which looked ugly sticking out from under her vest (she thought). There was a hospital-style bracelet on her wrist that read: "NAME: HIKARI. SPECIES: HUMAN. TYPE: N/A. LEVEL: N/A. TRAINER: N/A. FEMALE." She snorted a little at it. It was obviously meant for Pokemon. She saw her pack sitting at the foot of the bed.

Although she felt like she could have stayed in the comfy bed and slept all day, her head wouldn't let her go to sleep—it was buzzing with questions.

_How did I get here? Where's Satoshi? And where's Buizel? What happened?!_

The only way to get the answers she wanted was to go and find them, she decided. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her limbs were still a little sore and her shoulder and ankle definitely didn't feel good, but she was used to the pain by now and got out of bed anyway.

She stepped carefully on her bandaged foot and made her way to the door, grabbing her pack along the way and pausing just before it to quickly run her fingers through her tangled and abused blue hair. Her limbs felt a little shaky and weak but she figured she'd be fine once she got moving and her blood started flowing properly. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open slowly. She stuck her head out and looked up and down the clean, white hallway outside. It was also empty. She stepped out into the hall and followed the signs that directed her to the lobby of the Poke Center. She pulled her pack onto her uninjured shoulder.

She jumped when a nurse Chansey rounded the corner.

"Chansey?" it paused and questioned her. She had no idea what it had said, so she just smiled nervously and waved and walked past it quickly without looking back.

When she finally reached the lobby, she scanned the waiting area chairs, but to her dismay, they were all vacant. Where is Satoshi? _I hope he got off that island okay! What if Darkrai still has him?_

"Can I help you, Miss?"

Hikari was startled and turned around to see Nurse Joy sitting at the front information desk, looking at her with concern. Hikari saw her brown eyes flick down to the hospital band on her thin wrist.

"Oh! You're that girl! You should be in bed! Don't worry about your Pokemon, they're all healed and in that bag you're holding. Now let me help you back to--" The Nurse got up from her chair and hurried around the desk towards Hikari.

"What? Why? I feel fine, really!" Hikari held up her hands to stop her.

"Really? You didn't seem to be doing too well just a little while ago. Tell me, have you recently had any contact with any Dark Pokemon, Miss?" Joy stopped in front of her, still looking anxious.

Hikari blinked. _How did she know...?_ "Yes, Darkrai, but what does that---"

"Darkrai!" The nurse exclaimed dramatically, and then seemed to sink into her own world of thought. Hikari stared.

"Nurse Joy, do you think you can tell me if my friends were here? It's a taller, tan guy and a shorter kid with messy black hair and a hat--"

"Oh yes, them—the ones who brought you in. They had to be removed from the facility… And anyway, you really need to get back to bed, Miss, you are still experiencing the after-effects attack of a very powerful Dark Pokemon and we need to continue working on you! The only thing that can help is another Pokemon's ability, but you seem to have something deflecting everything we try. When you were asleep, you--," Nurse Joy tried to shepherd her back towards her room but Hikari wasn't budging. She didn't like the sound of that last sentence one bit.

"What do you mean 'removed from the facility'? What happened?" She asked with a slightly demanding tone, ignoring the rest of what the nurse had said.

Joy looked irritated, "The black-haired boy was causing quite a disturbance because we wouldn't allow him into your room—"

"Is he okay?" Hikari cut in sharply.

Nurse Joy looked even more annoyed at being cut off, "What? He was fine, but you need to—"

"Thank you for your help, Nurse Joy, I really appreciate it, but I have to get going now!" and before the nurse could get in another word, Hikari turned and hobbled out the sliding glass doors as fast as she could.

Bright sunlight assaulted her eyes and she had to blink to adjust them from the dim fluorescent lighting of the Poke Center. Once she was accustomed to the lighting, she looked around for where Takeshi and Satoshi could be. Scanning the area, her eyes came to rest on two boys standing on the bright green grass in front of the building beneath the shade of a large tree. They seemed to be arguing animatedly about something… Then she realized it was Satoshi and Takeshi.

Takeshi seemed to feel her looking at them at that moment, and turned to look in her direction, smiling and giving a little wave when he saw her standing on the steps of the Poke Center. Ash stopped arguing and looked to see what Takeshi had stopped to look at.

Their eyes connected, even from a distance, Hikari could feel it.

Seeing him somehow helped to burn away some of the iciness that had encased on her heart. She clutched the material over her chest at the sudden sensation. She swallowed hard and gulped down a breath of refreshingly warm air to steady herself. She felt an overwhelming urge to be close to Satoshi at once; like if she got closer the cold thing beating in her chest would turn all the way back into a normal, not icy heart. Her feet were in motion before she realized it.

Satoshi had been arguing that they should try again to get to Hikari, even if they had to break into the Poke Center while Takeshi was disagreeing and saying that Hikari was in good hands and if the nurses didn't think she should have visitors then they shouldn't bother her. Suddenly, Takeshi stopped arguing with him and looked to the left, smiled, and waved.

"What are you—" Satoshi had started, following Takeshi's gaze over to the steps of the Poke Center. _Hikari._ Although, Satoshi noticed, she did still look a little sick (there were faint circles under her eyes and she looked a little weak), with the sunlight streaming from the clear blue sky lighting her, she still made his heart speed up a beat or two despite being in her dirty, damaged clothes, being bandaged, and not having any shoes on. Warm brown met with exhaustion-dulled but still dazzling blue. Satoshi found a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, and then she started towards them.

She didn't care about the annoying smirk on Takeshi's face or the fact that her ankle was still aching horribly. She practically ran to Satoshi and lunged desperately at him for a hug. She caught a glimpse of his slightly surprised face before he caught her. The impact made Satoshi stagger back a step. Her arms went around him and she buried her face in his chest unabashedly. She hugged him tighter than she had probably hugged anyone in her life. She didn't know exactly why. He was there and he was solid and warm. And he smelled like pine needles and campfire smoke. She inhaled it. It made a small smile spread across Hikari's lips. His hands came around tentatively to rest on her shoulders. It wasn't much, but the small, warm weight strangely soothed the girl.

"Hikari?" Satoshi said quietly, gently pulling her away from him. She stepped back, smiling a little sheepishly.

"Hi, Hikari. How are you feeling?" came a voice.

"Oh, Takeshi! I'm sorry! I feel fine, thanks!" she reached over and gave him a hug that lasted about one tenth of the time that Satoshi's did.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Satoshi asked, shoving his hands into his jean pockets and looking at the green grass at his feet.

"I'm fine," Hikari put a little force behind her words; she was getting a little impatient. She had about a million questions to get answered and she didn't want to wait any longer.

"So, I bet you've got some questions. Satoshi told me about Darkrai and I think I know what happened to you guys," Takeshi said to Hikari. She nodded.

"I almost thought the whole thing was a dream! Go on, then, Takeshi," Hikari said, eager for explanations of the bizarre experience she had just been through.

Takeshi nodded his head, "You guys got blasted into the sky, landed in the water, and disappeared. There were search crews and everything in the water—no trace of you guys anywhere. Then, out of nowhere, both of you guys just sort of… fell out of the sky yesterday."

"Wait—yesterday?" Hikari asked.

"You've been unconscious for a day," Satoshi explained, "I woke up pretty much right away, though, but Nurse Joy wouldn't even let us--"

"Satoshi!" Takeshi interrupted, and Satoshi shut up for the time being.

"Anyway, there was this bright flash, and there you were. Now, I did some research on

Darkrai; asked around about it, you know. The people in this village told me that there is a mysterious island that can only be accessed when there's about to be a new moon. Its called Newmoon Island-- appropriately," he paused, "I can't really explain how you got there and back, but the villagers said that there are rumors of a powerful Dark Pokemon ruling Newmoon Island, and if you happen to stumble across the island during the new moon, you're supposed to get trapped there forever," he smiled, "I guess you guys are the exception."

Hikari nodded for him to go on.

"Satoshi told me you guys figured out it was using Dark Void on the whole island, and you were right about that. The attack basically sealed the island off from the outside world, which made it impossible to find for us. I guess the Island has a different time flow, too, because the night of the new moon was two days ago and you just got back yesterday…"

A thought suddenly occurred to Hikari, "Takeshi, what day is it? I mean what's the date?"

"Its June 17, why?"

"I haven't missed the Floaroma Town Contest yet, then!" she said happily.

Takeshi and Satoshi shared a silent look. Hikari noticed.

"What?" she looked between the two of them.

"Do you think you feel well enough to—" Satoshi started.

She tried hard not to explode at them. They were, after all, just being good friends.

"I really think I'm okay guys. Once my ankle heals, I'll be good as new!" She looked down at it and, seeing her bare, bandaged foot, was reminded that she didn't have any shoes on.

"Hey guys?"

"Yeah?"

"Any chance there's a mall in this town?"

The two boys looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

----------------------------------------------------

To Be Continued…

(next chapter will be [even better lol  )

Thanks for reading!


	8. Floaroma, ICE RUSH!

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Wow, this took a while! Thanks for hanging in there and thank you for all of the reviews, I appreciate them very much! Warning for this chapter: Okay, okay, so I know this is SO not how anything goes, like geographically or how it went in the show when they were actually at these places, bla bla bla…. NOT ACCURATE! Lol... Just go with me on this… lol.

**Chapter Eight: Floaroma: Ice Rush!**

"_Any chance there's a mall in this town?"_

_The two boys looked at each other and rolled their eyes._

After a few hours of browsing the stores lining the sunlit white sidewalks of the busy little port town, Hikari was quite satisfied with her new clothes (she had managed to find ones that were nearly identical to her old ones) and her new boots (which she agreed to keep her injured foot out of for now), and her new Poketch, which was currently beeping happily as she tinkered with it.

Thanks to her mother, who had transferred some "emergency" funds to her bank account after a recounting of the story that ended with a rather embarrassing round of thanking Satoshi for "taking such good care" of her daughter, Hikari had enough money to replace everything she had lost (and then some).

Now taking a short break before heading back to the Trainer Center where they had rented a room, the trio was seated on a bench beneath the shade of a tree next to the sidewalk finishing ice cream cones-- Hikari's treat for accompanying her shopping (as if they had a choice).

Takeshi was feeding his Croagunk and Ash was talking happily with Pikachu, who he had finally been reunited with; the little electric Pokemon was now back in his rightful place, perched on his trainer's shoulder. All of Hikari's Pokemon (except Nyarmar, who remained indifferent) had been happy to see that she was safe once they learned what had happened. All were currently in their Pokeballs which were now safely attached to a new brown leather belt that was slung fashionably around her waist.

Finished jamming on the buttons on her new Poketch, she strapped it to her wrist and got up, carefully standing on her injured foot. Takeshi had been dropping hints that she should go back to the PokeCenter to make sure that everything was really okay with her, but she stiffly brushed his attempts off, assuring him that she was completely rehabilitated (with the exception of her foot).

Deep down, she still felt a little off-kilter though. She felt chilly, even though she knew it must be very hot outside—the sun was beaming down on them brightly, and Satoshi kept complaining about the temperature even after inhaling his cold ice cream cone.

Hikari would have liked nothing more than to lie in the sun and absorb its warm rays, but there seemed to be something keeping said rays from reaching her skin. Her fingertips felt cold and slightly numb, as if they had been denied proper blood-flow for a while. She felt like the moment the warm air reached her lungs, it turned icy. Exhaling, she felt chilled air passing over her lips. The most troubling was her chest—or what was inside it to be more specific. She found herself compulsively pressing her palm over her heart, almost afraid she wouldn't feel beating. The pulse did indeed feel very faint against her hand...

As they started down the sidewalk again, her movement could be classified as a sort of a hobbling skip. She got along fine, but not without earning some odd glances from passersby. Hikari sensed that her companions were concerned that she was up and walking around so fast, but she purposefully ignored their anxious glances.

"I can't believe they don't have any pink scarves here," Hikari grumbled, stretching her arms over her head, mindful of her bruised shoulder.

She stopped suddenly, "Oh, chotto matte!"

The two boys stopped and looked back at her with matching expressions of shopping-induced exhaustion. Of course, their arms were weighed down with Hikari's bags. She swung her backpack off her shoulder, and after rifling through it for a moment, tossed out a Pokeball…

"…Bui?" Buizel appeared on the sidewalk in front of them, blinking in the sunlight.

"I almost forgot, Buizel! I owe you one—I said anything, so," she gestured to the surrounding shoppes, "take your pick!"

(A/N: Here comes some imaginative writing... just forgive me on this part. lol)

Buizel gave Hikari a happy salute with his paw, "Bui!" She laughed.

He glanced around the area, promptly trotting over to a small pushcart across the narrow cobblestone street. His trainer read the large bold lettering on the cart's red awning: "POKEMON ACCESSORIES, etc." There was an old, thin, kind-looking man with slightly wild white, wispy hair and a matching red apron attending the cart.

They followed after Buizel. When they got there, the otter Pokemon already had its nose pointed at the item of its choice. Amongst velvet-laden displays of glimmering evolution stones, colorful Pokeballs, treats, and potions, there was a row of small, plain-looking silver cubes. This was what Buizel was currently interested in—specifically, one cube with a small label next to it that read "ICE RUSH (special)."

"Can we be sure this is legit?" Takeshi asked out of the side of his mouth.

Hikari shrugged, watching the old man help a boy who was buying a treat for a small Pidgey balancing on his forearm, "He looks alright to me."

"Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed from the shoulder of Satoshi, who remained silent. Hikari looked to him for his opinion and he just shrugged.

Pidgey boy, who had dark hair under a blue hat, looking to be around Hikari's age, glanced at them, and then did a double take; It seemed that news of Darkrai's attack on the blue-haired coordinator form Twinleaf had leaked from the Pokemon Center and spread across town. Everyone was curious about the girl who was rumored to be cursed by the mysterious legendary Pokemon of Newmoon Island. Surprisingly, either no one knew or no one cared that Satoshi had also been present. Hikari stared right back at Pidgey boy and he gasped, hurrying off, his Pidgey flapping its wings and cooing indignantly at the abrupt takeoff.

After the cart-keeper had finished helping the boy with the Pidgey, he ambled over to the gang.

"I see, I see, very nice choice!" he said in a jolly tone, ignoring Hikari and speaking directly to Buizel, whose nose was still pointed at the ICE RUSH cube.

"Bui!" Buizel agreed.

"Er… Hello sir, um, what exactly, uh, is it?" Hikari asked, feeling stupid. The shopkeep looked up, blinking, as if noticing Hikari for the first time.

"This, young lady, is a very special item. Your Buizel has excellent taste!" He patted Buizel gently on the head. Surprisingly, the water Pokemon sat still and let him. Hikari stared.

"These are my own special brand of TMs. One of a kind, these are. Very powerful, ve-ry powerful—perfectly safe, of course," he explained further, extending a willowy hand to pick the ICE RUSH cube up. Satoshi perked up a little, looking more interested. Takeshi hung back, looking slightly skeptical.

Hikari gulped, thinking about the money she had left in her pocket after her mini shopping-spree.

The old man seemed to sense her line of thought and added with a wink, "If you promise me you'll put give this one a good show at the Floaroma contest and tell 'em where you got it from, I'll let it go for half-price. Fifty dollars, only for you."

Fifty dollars was exactly the amount of money Hikari had left in her pocket, and she felt like the old man must be psychic or something. She was sure that a thing as extraordinary as a powerful, one-of-a-kind ability wouldn't ever be this cheap, either. Still, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to cheat someone… He pushed the cube into her hands, smiling brightly and nodding.

She thanked the man profusely and paid for it, deciding it was worth the chance.

"How does it work?" she asked, staring at her distorted reflection in the small silvery box. She saw Satoshi reflected in it, peering at the item over her shoulder. She smiled a "well, here goes nothing" smile over her shoulder at him. He smiled back and shrugged again.

"Pika!" Pikachu commented cheerfully, waving her on with a stubby paw.

"Allow me," the old man said, gently taking the box back from her, "If you'd please come here," he asked Buizel, who obliged, sitting at the old man's boots obediently.

The shopkeeper simply tapped the cube once on the tip of Buizel's nose, a blinding white flash appeared, and the cube was gone.

Everyone blinked. Buizel looked the same, getting back to its feet and inspecting itself.

"That's it?" Satoshi finally spoke up. The old man laughed, shaking his head.

"Don't try it out here, little fella, you'll need a bit more room for that one," the old man told Buizel, patting him again with another wink, and turning away from the group to help a line of customers that had accumulated while he had been talking to them.

The three teens looked at each other and shrugged yet again. Hikari asked Buizel if he felt okay once they were out of earshot of the old man with the cart. He nodded, so Hikari returned him to his Pokeball and made a mental note to try out Ice Rush as soon as they found someplace with a decent amount of space.

_How did that old man know we are going to Floaroma…?_ The thought suddenly dawned on her as she followed her two companions back to the Trainer Center where they had rented a room. It was next door to the Poke Center that had treated the two.

Unbeknownst to Hikari, her hand had drifted once again to rest over her heart. She felt someone watching her. Bringing her eyes up, she found Satoshi's staring back at her with a curious expression. She snapped back to reality and dropped her hand in what she hoped was an inconspicuous manner, brushing some imaginary particles off her skirt and readjusting her belt. Flashing him a reassuring smile, she focused on the Trainer Center coming into view even though she could still feel his eyes on her.

_And he chooses –now- to start becoming observant?_ Hikari mentally grumbled. Not that she was really keeping any secrets; she just didn't want her friends to worry needlessly. More importantly, she was sure she could handle whatever this was on her own without having to ask for help.

When they finally got to their 3-person room, Hikari claimed the bathroom, not having had access to one since before the Team Rocket explosion. Though they seemed to have cleaned her up a bit at the Pokemon Center, her body was aching for a nice, hot, relaxing shower.

Satoshi and Takeshi said they were going to go find something to eat. _Boys. Always thinking with their stomachs!_

When she got out of the shower, she felt much better, though she had to turn the water much hotter than usual just to be able to feel its warmth. She sighed and put her pajamas on, even though it was only about 6pm, her body was telling her it was definitely time to go to sleep and she didn't put up any sort of a fight. She collapsed onto her bed without even bothering to get under the covers. Tomorrow they'd finally be getting on the ship to Floaroma Town and the contest was the next day. She wanted to be well rested for tomorrow, as she was planning on practicing whatever Ice Rush was with Buizel so they could possibly use it in a contest battle or maybe even the appeal if it looked cool enough. She thought with hope as she drifted off, maybe she'd give Nyarmar another try, too…

The next morning, as usual, Hikari awoke before either of the two boys. Her sleep had been surprisingly devoid of dreams, or at least any she could remember. She sat up, realizing someone had covered her with a blanket as it slid from her shoulders... She smiled over at their sleeping forms. Checking the clock in the room, she saw that they only had about half an hour before they had to leave to catch the boat, which was cutting it close for getting-ready time for her, but her male companions could sleep until ten minutes before they had to checkout.

She happily went about her usual routine of getting dressed—which was a little slow-going due to her shoulder and ankle, but she managed—doing her hair, and getting packed up. It was nice to return to some semblance of normalcy after the past couple of days. She buckled her Pokeball belt around her waist just as the clock ticked to "wake up the boys" time.

She crept over to Satoshi's bed. His messy hair was all over and his black t-shirt was askew. His hat was hanging on the lamp next to his bed and his blanket was only half on the mattress. He was always such an odd sleeper… Pikachu was curled up at the foot of his bed.

She patted Pikachu softly on the head to wake it up gently; to be on the receiving end of its Thunderbolt was not a pleasant sensation. Its little eyes blinked open and she smiled, "Morning, Pikachu, we've gotta go soon."

"Cha!" Pikachu yawned, stretching, and bounced off the bed. He began to push all of Satoshi's stuff (that had somehow become scattered about the room) into a pile.

Poking his shoulder tentatively, Hikari now attempted to awaken the boy, "Satoshi!"

No response.

She tried again, a little louder and leaning father over his bed, "Satoshi!" He shifted a little, but remained in dreamland.

"SATOSHI!" she yelled finally. That got him.

"YAH!" he yelped, actually rolling sideways off the bed, taking the blankets with him. His reaction startled Hikari so much that she actually lost her balance learning over him and tumbled headfirst over the bed with him, so they ended in a heap of arms, legs, and blankets on the floor together.

Takeshi chose this opportune moment to wake up and see them wrapped up on the floor together.

"Guys, did I miss something?" He was obviously holding back laughter.

"Ow!" Satoshi groaned, ignoring the comment. Hikari concurred.

Hikari found her way out of the blankets and found herself lying across Ash's chest in sort of a human plus-sign arrangement. They looked embarrassedly at each other, both blushing slightly.

He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing awkwardly. The blue-haired girl quickly extricated herself from the blankety tangle and busied herself with fixing her hair.

"Ah, why can't I ever be awoken by a pretty girl landing on top of me?" Takeshi said in a dramatic, lovesick voice. Hikari choked and Satoshi looked like he was about to have a nosebleed.

"Are you guys going to be ready to go in…(she checked the clock) 5 minutes, or am I going to Floaroma Town by myself?" Hikari changed the subject. It worked, the two boys sprung into action, gathering their things. The girl smiled in satisfaction, picking up her bag.

They checked out of the Trainer Center and boarded the two-level white ship with the sign that said "FLOAROMA." Passage was free for trainers and coordinators (luckily for Hikari, whose wallet now held nothing but air).

The ride over was rather uneventful. The sun was still shining brightly, the salty water was splashing happily against the hull of the ship as it moved across the water, and Pelippers and Wingulls circled overhead. Hikari released Pochama for the first time in a while and sat with it on a bench on the upper deck, feeding it treats Takeshi had brought. Satoshi and Pikachu were watching over the railings to see if they could spot any cool water Pokemon. Takeshi sat next to Hikari and quietly read a book about Pokemon breeding. A few people gave Hikari odd looks, but she ignored them. _Hopefully no one knows about the "cursed girl" in Floaroma…_

It only took about 25 minutes for them to reach the harbor on the other side. When they disembarked, Hikari gasped at the view. Rising before them was a gigantic, gently sloping hill covered with absolutely every shade of flower imaginable. At the very top there was the small town, a majestic white clock tower rising at the center of it, and smaller colorfully shingled houses surrounding. There was also a large white domed building to the right side that was decorated with colored flags, which Hikari guessed to be the Pokemon Gym and Contest arena.

"Kirei!" She clapped with delight, inhaling, "Wow, it smells great, too!"

"Yeah!" Satoshi agreed.

"Pochama!" the little penguin cheered, wriggling happily in its trainer's arms.

"Hmmm, I wonder how we get to the town from here?" Takeshi wondered aloud. There didn't seem to be a visible path through the flower field.

"Looks like ya just climb the hill," Satoshi pointed out, gesturing to the other trainers who were pushing their way through the thick flora and cutting straight through to the town.

"Alright, let's go!" said Hikari joyfully. They started into the vast field.

"Po-cha!" Suddenly, the little penguin Pokemon slipped from Hikari's arms and bounded out into the field ahead.

"Hey, Pochama! Where do you think you're going?" Hikari chased after him as fast as she could with her ankle. She had lost sight of him amongst the dense, knee-high petals and leaves. She looked back, making sure she could still see Satoshi and Takeshi, when she bumped into something beneath the flowers. _Gotcha!_ She thought, reaching down to pluck Pochama out of the flowerbed. What she grabbed, however, was…

"Shaymin?" a small voice said. Hikari blinked twice.

"What the… You're not Pochama…"

It was a small, white, grass-covered hedgehog-looking creature that Hikari had never seen before.

"What kind of Pokemon are you…?" she muttered, looking into its small, beady eyes. In response, the Pokemon said nothing but pulled a leaf from the side of its head over to its mouth and blew on it, creating a very eerie melody. It was strangely comforting to Hikari, although she thought it sounded a little sad. As the tune went on, her blue eyes became hazy and the world before her began to blur a bit, the surrounding flowers melding into indistinguishable color patches. A strong feeling of calmness overcame her, and the music seemed to block out all other sounds—except something annoying that kept repeating itself. It was getting louder… someone was shouting her name!

"Hikari!" It startled the little hedgehog Pokemon, who promptly curled up into a ball, causing Hikari to lose her hold on it and it rolled away through the flowers. She snapped out of her stupor, shaking her head.

"Hikari!" the voice came closer. She looked around. Satoshi and Takeshi had reached her. She felt a tap on her boot and looked down.

"Pochama?" Pochama looked up at her. She numbly unclipped his Pokeball and called him back, still trying to find her way out of the strange fog the music had put on her brain.

"What were you doing, Hikari?" Satoshi asked, looking confused.

"Are you okay?" Takeshi added.

She nodded, "There was a Pokemon. I've never seen it before…," she said in a slightly dreamy voice.

"Really? Where'd it go?" Satoshi questioned, eagerly looking around. The girl shook her head vigorously to clear it.

"I dunno, you guys scared it away," Hikari said a little grumpily, finally returning to her senses.

"Sure it wasn't just your face that scared it?" Satoshi poked. Hikari huffed and looked offended before swatting Satoshi's hat off his head and revealing his ruffled black hair.

"Hay!" he complained, diving into the tall plants after the hat. Hikari stuck her tongue out at him. A grin tugged at her lips at the sight of his messy hair and the unexplainable feeling she got from simply falling back into to the familiar pattern of teasing each other. When the black-haired boy had retrieved his hat, he saw Hikari smiling and grinned right back at her, laughing a bit. Something intangible skipped like electricity between blue and brown eyes.

"Alright, you two, break it up," Takeshi interrupted uncomfortably. Hikari blinked and looked at him questioningly.

"Huh?" Satoshi said, quite clueless. Takeshi just shook his head and sighed heavily.

The group continued their trek up the hill in near silence the rest of the way. As they reached the top, Hikari's ankle was throbbing madly and Satoshi was complaining about the heat again. Takeshi heaved another sigh.

The town was even more spectacular than it had looked from far away. There were charming shoppes lining the sidewalks and antique-looking lampposts lining the cobblestone streets. There was hardly a window to be seen that did not come with an overflowing flower box. True to its name, the aroma drifting about the town was amazing.

"You'd better register for the Contest, Hikari," Takeshi pointed to a poster taped to a lamppost that read "CONTEST REGISTRATION AT FLORA DOME" and had an arrow pointing down a street to the right. There was a steady stream of Pokemon and trainers following the directions of the sign. Hikari nodded and they joined the throng.

The trio arrived at a small booth just outside the Flora Dome marked "CONTEST REGISTRATION." Hikari was able to get through the registration process in a small amount of time. They took down the list of Pokemon she would be competing with (she chose Buizel, Pachirisu, and Piplup), a few other basic pieces of information, and handed her a large violet ticket with her contestant number printed on it (007).

"Number seven, huh," Satoshi commented as they made their way back down the street to find a camping spot in one of the surrounding fields, "I wonder how many contestants there are?"

"The sign at the booth said the numbers are given out as the contestants sign up, so that means there are only seven so far. But who knows how many more will sign up before tomorrow afternoon," Takeshi noted wisely from in front of her, leading the pack.

"So, how many d'you think there are gunna be?" Satoshi questioned from behind the blue-haired coordinator.

"Not sure. The town looks pretty packed, but its hard to tell who's competing," Takeshi shrugged, "Hey, I think we can set up camp over there."

"Great, I'm starvin'!"

"Pika!"

Hikari was absorbed in staring at the violet ticket in her hands, nodding along with whatever they said. She was beginning to feel uneasy that she still didn't know what Buizel's new attack was, but chose to use him for the contest anyway… _I know I technically promised that old man, but we haven't even practiced it yet and the contest is tomorrow, what was I thinking? Well, if worst comes to worst, I can always just use Pachirisu for the appeal and leave the battling to Buizel… _

As she was mulling all of this over in her head, she neglected to notice that Takeshi had stopped at what was to be their campsite for the night. Accordingly, she bumped right into his back, or rather his backpack, let out a yelp and began to fall backwards. Her ticket fluttered out of her hands.

She was prepared to meet with the ground, but instead her back met with something softer and warmer… Satoshi's chest. His hands quickly came to her arms to steady her. She blinked and looked up to see his concerned face over her. They both seemed to freeze up for a moment, then…

"Uh—you okay, Hikari?" he gently pushed her forwards and back onto her own feet. His fingers lingered on her shoulders. Her heart jumped to life for a moment, giving a strong pulse. Hikari jumped.

"Y-yeah, gomen!" she apologized embarrassedly, regaining her balance, taking a few steps away and out of his grasp. His hands fell back to his sides.

They both bent down to pick up the dropped ticket at once, their hands reaching it at the same time. Satoshi hastily withdrew his and stood back up, coughing. Hikari quickly snatched the violet piece of paper from the grass. They stood awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze.

Pikachu looked up between the two teenagers, puzzled.

"Pika...?"

Takeshi observed the scene with some interest, before reminding the two of his presence by starting to unpack unnecessarily loudly. They both jumped, and went about unpacking their own things. As it was still only around noon, they didn't set up their tents just yet. Although it was only dotted with a few flowers here and there, the field Takeshi had picked was just as fragrant and beautiful as the rest of the town. Takeshi cooked lunch, but Hikari didn't have much of an appetite. She ate quickly, thanked the cook, made sure her new Pokeball belt was around her waist, and ventured a little ways farther into the wide, grassy field they were in. Neither of the boys followed, and she was secretly grateful. For some reason, she thought she'd rather do this without them watching in case she screwed up or something.

Hikari unclipped a Pokeball and tossed it out. Buizel appeared, blinking in the sunlight. He immediately seemed to know what Hikari had planned.

"Bui, Bui!" he barked excitedly.

"Alright, ready to give it a try, Buizel?" Hikari called. He nodded, awaiting direction.

"Okay, here goes! Buizel, ICE RUSH!" the blue-haired trainer shouted.

Immediately, Buizel sprung into action, acting on the instincts her command triggered. The otter Pokemon dropped to all fours and took off running. He circled Hikari once in a wide arc, building speed as he went.

Hikari watched, holding her breath in anticipation.

At the second lap around Hikari, Buizel's paws began to glow a white-blue color, and they began moving so fast that he became nothing more than a white-blue blur circling her. He circled once more at incredible speed, and just as Hikari began to think there was nothing more to the attack, she noticed the ground around her... the blades of grass and delicate flower petals were slowly becoming covered with a thin layer of glistening frost...

"Awesome!" Hikari yelled enthusiastically, "Keep it up, Buizel!"

One more lap around her, and Hikari witnessed the full potential of the attack. Buizel whipped past so fast this time, that he actually stirred up a breeze. He broke the circle pattern he had been keeping and shot off into the field in front of Hikari. He didn't come to a stop until he was nearly out of sight of his trainer.

Hikari stood agape.

Around her was built up a trail of ice at least 2 inches thick, and as Buizel had run off into the field, he left behind a track of sparkling ice at least as thick and about 6 feet wide. The ice was seven still slowly spreading, frosting over a few more inches of grass and flowers with a quiet crackling sound.

"Bui?" Buizel called, waving at his trainer from at the end of his track, as if asking for her opinion.

"Buizel, that was…AWESOME!" Hikari shouted, jumping and waving at him ecstatically.

Buizel cheered and jumped onto his ice track to slide on his belly back to Hikari's feet. She scooped him up and swung him around in the air before setting him down.

"Buizel, I think I know exactly what do with this… If you're up for it?"

"Bui, zel!" the Pokemon looked determined. They definitely needed to work on control… and possibly charge-up time, since the appeal couldn't take more than 30 seconds…

"Alright, this is gunna take a lot of practice, but we'll show this town what we're made of!"

…

Hikari and Buizel practiced the attack for hours, well into dusk. Hikari had thought up a rather complicated series of moves to go with it, but by the end of the day, she felt confident enough with their progress that she was sure that Buizel would be able to perform for the appeal the next day. She had lost track of time, but since the sun was starting to go down and they were both thoroughly exhausted, she was ready to call it quits, when…

"Just WHAT do you think you're DOING?" a loud, angry female voice interrupted. Hikari turned to look around.

"Huh?"

"Bui?"

There stood a girl a few feet away from Hikari with her hands on her hips, looking very displeased with the blue-haired girl. Next to the girl stood a Pokemon that Hikari didn't recognize but guessed to be a grass-type. This stranger girl looked at least a few years older than Hikari, maybe even older than Takeshi, judging by her height. She had a sheet of rather impressive, long, straight, lavender hair and sharp green eyes. She was clad in white tank top that had a sharp collar sticking up, adding to her severe appearance. Her pants were a tight black material and her expression was fierce. Her Pokemon also looked unhappy.

"Er… sorry? Who are you?" Hikari asked, stunned.

"You've RUINED the flowers! Those flowers are the pride of this town! What makes you think you can just go destroying things that don't belong to you? You careless little girl!" she scolded Hikari as if she was 9 years old. Hikari looked around. The surrounding area was indeed covered in ice from Buizel having performed Ice Rush so many times. The flowers and grass were sadly suffering under the ice's crushing weight and freezing temperature. Hikari hadn't really been paying attention…

"Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't realize—!" she began to apologize honestly, when she was cut off.

"Oh, never mind! I'll clean up your mess. Quickfire!" She tossed out a Pokeball, and a large flaming horse Pokemon appeared. She merely pointed at the icy field; the horse whinnied and nodded, taking off across the field, melting the ice with its flaming hooves. It returned as its job was finished, and a flash later, it was back in its Pokeball.

Hikari stood silently; equally stunned at the girl's sudden appearance and sour attitude, and her own carelessness. Buizel gently nudged her hand with his nose. She quietly patted him and recalled him as the girl called to the Pokemon already standing next to her.

"Bella!" she snapped, "Go to work."

"Roserade!" The Pokemon held up its flower-shaped limbs and emitted a giant cloud of some sort of sparkling spore-type powder into the air where it spread and then settled over the field. Magically, the flowers and grass regained their original color and liveliness.

"Wow," Hikari said in awe, then tried again, "Listen, I really am sorry, I didn't meant to—"

The girl threw her a sharp look that actually stopped any more words from coming out of Hikari's mouth. She shrunk under the intense glare.

"Be more careful next time," she said coldly, and turned away, her Pokemon following obediently.

Hikari stood for a good few minutes after she had been left alone. _Well, that wasn't the best way to end the night… Night!_ She realized the sun had almost entirely been swallowed by the horizon and hurried back to camp before it became too dark for her to find her way back.

When she reached the comfort of a blazing fire and more of Takeshi's cooking, she felt a little better and tried to forget about the incident with the girl in the field. She kept it to herself. Satoshi and Takeshi asked her if she felt ready for the competition. All she could do was nod numbly.

She excused herself after barely talking during the entire meal, explaining that she was exhausted. It was the truth; she had been training for around 8 hours straight, but she also wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible to get away from what had just happened. She was determined to do her best tomorrow, no matter what! No way was she going to let all of those hours of training go to waste!

-- next day

Hikari bought a special star seal for Buizel's Pokeball on the way to the arena. She had managed to put the incident in the field to the back of her mind and concentrate on the upcoming contest, so she was feeling quite a lot better than she had last night. Buizel was out walking alongside the trio and seemed ready to go, as well. Excitement was buzzing in the air as the mass of people made its way to the Dome for the contest. The town looked more beautiful than ever, decked out in flowers and wreaths of blooms, with colorful petals wafting though the warm air, but Hikari was too tense to take in the sights.

The group had to split up as Hikari had to make her way into the contestant's area, and Satoshi gave her a rather odd handshake as he wished her good luck. She nodded numbly. She was wearing a new dress that her mother had sent after most of her possessions had been destroyed on the island. It was black and white with some hounds tooth patterning on the collar and an elegant black ribbon tied around the waist. Satoshi had seemed to stare at her for a little longer than usual when she came out of the changing rooms, but she was too nervous to notice it. Takeshi wasn't.

She returned Buizel to his ball so he could make a proper entrance for the appeal. After that, it was just waiting for her number to be called. She looked around and saw that there were certainly many more than seven contestants… she guessed there were around twenty in all, stuffed into the waiting area behind the curtains.

She could hear the crowd roaring just beyond the velvet magenta curtain. Her heart (for once) was actually pounding, her hands shaking as she gripped Buizel's Pokeball tightly.

"Seven, you're up!" a voice shouted. It sent a shock through her system. She checked her ticket one last time, as if to see if it might have changed while she wasn't looking, but it still read 007. She gulped and tucked it back into her pocket. She could hear the perky announcer introducing her.

Hikari looked up, took a deep breath, hitched a smile onto her face, and stepped out onto the stage. It took Hikari's eyes a moment to adjust to the change in lighting, but when they did, her stomach did a little leap. The stage, a reflective purple surface, was surrounded by beautiful flowering hedges and trees (which she hoped not to damage with Ice Rush). The stands were packed with indistinguishable faces. She couldn't find Satoshi and Takeshi even if she tried. The judge's table was directly in across from the stage, covered neatly in a white tablecloth and with a large timer displaying "00:30." _Right, let's see what we can do with thirty seconds, Buizel._ Taking her eyes off the surroundings, Hikari focused on the task at hand.

Giving a small wave to the crowd, which responded enthusiastically, she crossed the stage to the starting position. She looked over to the judge's table. The leftmost judge, Nurse Joy, gave her a small nod. The timer started ticking down.

"Alright, Buizel, time for the spotlight!" she called out with a confidence that surprised herself, tossing his ball high into the air, where it burst open with fireworks of blue stars. He landed easily on two feet in front of Hikari.

"Buizel!" he barked confidently.

A fleeting feeling of dread hit Hikari as the Pokeball came flying back down from the sky, looking like it was going to smack Buizel on the head. At the last moment, however, he looked up, sidestepped, and turned around quick, hitting it with his tail in Hikari's direction. She caught it smoothly with one hand, grinning and giving him a little salute for his creative improvising. _Hopefully that looked rehearsed! _The crowd laughed and applauded.

She gave a little bow and addressed her Pokemon, "Ready!"

"Bui!" It stood ready for action. The crowd hushed slightly in anticipation.

"Give 'em a round of bubbles, Buizel! Let's go!"

Buizel sprung into action, blowing small bubbles while circling the entire stage speedily, like they had practiced. The crowd let out a cheer as a multitude of bubbles rose into the air and caught the sunlight, creating sparkling effects.

_You ain't seen nothing yet!_ Hikari thought confidently. She glanced at the clock—00:18. _Now or never!_

"Now give it all you've got, Buizel! Ice Rush!!" Hikari called out.

Immediately, Buizel's paws began to move faster and glow white-blue. Soon he was barely a blur, moving at incredible speed. _Great charge up time!_ Hikari cheered mentally. The timing for this trick had to be dead on… they'd practiced it enough (she hoped).

Buizel circled once, leaving a controlled trail of ice on the stage only where his paws hit.

"To the top!" cued Hikari.

Buizel leapt into the air, skipping on the bubbles as they rose, turning each one instantly into frozen glasslike bulbs. He reached the top bubble, icing it over, connecting the globes with a delicate trail of ice. The impressive glass-cyclone-bubble structure was beginning to fall, though.

"Sonic boom, now!" Hikari shouted urgently.

"Zel!" The Pokemon flipped midair and slashed its tail repeatedly at all of the ice bubbles. They shattered in a spectacular, glittering cloud, floating down to the stage like fairy dust. One or two hit the stage whole and burst, but Hikari figured it was still the best they'd ever done it. The crowd roared and the buzzer sounded just as Buizel's feet hit the ground again. He was panting a little, but looked pleased with himself.

Hikari let out a huge breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, bowed to the judges and the crowd, then raced across the stage where Buizel leapt into her arms. The crowd was roaring but the sound seemed far away to Hikari.

"That was amazing, Buizel!" she kissed his nose and hugged him, twirling around.

The perky host returned to the stage, "Thank you, contestant seven!" she said cheerily into the mic. The crowd went wild again.

Hikari set Buizel down and trotted offstage. It was over. It went as well as it could have.

Now all there was to do was to wait for the results.

--

To Be Continued…

Thanks for reading & please Review!


	9. Contest: Round 2!

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Sorry, this one's a bit shorter, but I figured it's better than nothing and you've waited long enough! And I really have no idea about attacks and stuff, and about how these contests work. It has been a while since I've actually watched Pokemon, so I'm kind of just making things up as I go. Thanks to all who are stickin' with me! Just know, I read and appreciate each and every review, and updates do come… eventually!

**Chapter Nine. **

**Contest: Round 2!**

_Hikari set Buizel down and trotted offstage. It was over. It went as well as it could have. _

_Now all there was to do was to wait for the results._

It took a moment for Hikari's eyes to adjust to the dim lighting as she returned backstage.

The room, if possible, seemed even more tightly packed than before. Perhaps it was the addition of a few Pokemon who were getting pep talks from their trainers before returning to their Pokeballs to await their turn.

"Bui!" came an distressed call through all the excited chatter.

Hikari looked down. Buizel was currently getting squished amongst the crowd of legs and Pokemon.

"Gomen, Buizel!" Hikari called him back into his Pokeball and latched it securely to her belt.

She made her way across the room and sunk down on a bench along the wall that had a decent view of one of the hanging flat screens that were displaying the rest of the contest. As she continued to watch appeal after dazzling appeal, her nerves began to get to her. Had she done enough? It hadn't been perfect, but she was sure it was one of the more original appeals, at least. No other Pokemon had used Ice Rush; the old man surely had been telling the truth when he said it was a one-of-a-kind move. That had to count for something, right? Everything seemed like it had gone by so fast now. Trying to replay the appeal in her head, it just seemed like a blur.

She was interrupted from her thoughts as something moving through the crowd caught her eye. Purple hair? As fast as she had seen it, it had disappeared. She whipped her head around, searching. _I could've sworn that was… But, no, he doesn't Coordinate, does he? So why would he be here? I must be imagining things. Get a grip, Hikari! Now isn't the time to hallucinate!_

She shook her head and turned her attention back to the TV. Her stomach did an uncomfortable flip— the finalists were being announced already! The room hushed suddenly. Everyone, including Hikari stood at attention as just twelve blue rectangles appeared on the screen, representing the top-scoring finalists proceeding to the next round. Hikari looked around the room at the mix of hopeful, fearful, confident, and determined faces; only half of them would be in. Hikari held her breath and crossed her fingers. _Please…._

The rectangles began to flip over. Cheers went up from around the room for each one. A boy with green hair, a girl with brown hair and a bandana… _Please, please…_ A girl with red hair, a girl with lavender hair and green eyes­—_Wait a second! That's the girl from the field!_ That cold expression and piercing green eyes couldn't belong to anyone else. Hikari recognized them in an instant. She frowned, but there wasn't time to dwell on it. The cards continued to flip… _five, six, seven… _Hikari counted, her stomach dropping with each card that wasn't her.

_Last card…I can't bare to watch!_ Hikari's eyes squeezed shut. Her hands clenched the bench. A small cheer went up around her. Some people groaned. Someone clapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, look, it's you, Buizel girl!" a voice yelled in her ear.

Her eyes flew open and up to the screen. _Me! I… actually made it! Thank you, Buizel!_

Before she knew it, she was grinning like mad. She couldn't take her eyes off the results screen.

The contestants that hadn't made the cut began to file out of the room, thinning the crowd considerably. Some of them offered encouragement to those moving on while others just looked glum and shuffled out, grumbling or consoling their Pokemon.

The cards on the screen proceeded to rearrange themselves into the matchups for the first round. Hikari breathed a sigh of relief as the green-eyed girl was paired with someone else. Hikari had been paired with a boy who looked maybe a year younger than her and wore a blue newsboy hat over dark hair. His photo stared back at her with cool grey eyes. He looked familiar to her for some reason, but she couldn't quite place him… His hair kind of reminded her of Satoshi's, though. _Maybe that's it._

She gulped as she saw that they were first up. She hurried over to a mirror and checked her hair and smoothed her dress compulsively. Then, with Pachirisu's Pokeball grasped in her once again trembling hand, she made her way to the stage entrance to wait to be called. The boy she was up against came and stood next to her, also waiting. He was wearing a deep blue tailcoat that matched his hat. Hikari had a random brief image of Satoshi wearing a tailcoat dance through her head and almost laughed out loud before she remembered where she was.

She glanced over at her opponent and offered a weak smile in the spirit of friendly competition. He just kept his grey eyes directed straight ahead with a tense expression that Hikari could only interpret as fear. She looked down. His hand was gripping a Pokeball so tightly that his knuckles were beginning to turn white.

_Am I really that intimidating?_ She thought a little proudly. _Maybe he's just nervous._ Suddenly, the boy wasn't next to her, but crossing the stage to his position on the far end of the battlefield. Hikari jumped and quickly followed after him, not realizing they had been called already.

Back onto the brightly lit stage and surrounded by cheers, Hikari glanced up at the jumbo screen displaying both of their pictures and the point indicators. The name "Grey" was underneath the picture of the boy. _I guess that's fitting,_ Hikari thought, remembering his eyes. The timer showed 5:00.

A buzzer sounded.

Grey threw out his Pokeball first, "Arrow, its showtime!" he called in a voice that certainly didn't match the terrified expression he had on earlier. A small Pidgey cirled into the air amongst yellow stars, cooing its name happily.

_That's it! Pidgey boy! He was at that old man's cart in Floaroma! _Hikari was momentarily frozen as the memory flashed back to her. _He must think I'm cursed or something, that's why he was freaking out! Well, let's give him another reason to be scared of me!_

"Pachirisu, come out!" _Type advantage!_ Hikari cheered mentally as Pachirisu made its entrance through a cloud of blue hearts. The little white squirrel-type Pokemon bounced on its tail cheerfully, chirping its name. Hikari smiled.

"It looks like it's Grey's Pidgey, a flying type from the Kanto region, against Hikari's Pachirisu, an electric type from here in Sinnoh!" the announcer lady narrated over the loudspeaker.

The boy didn't seem too worried about the types, though. His expression was determined as he called out his first move.

"Arrow, Tackle!"

The small tan bird performed a graceful flip in the air before diving towards Pachirisu at impressive speed. _It's so fast!_

"Thunderbolt!" Hikari called urgently.

Grey seemed to know this was coming, however, and shouted, "Double Team and Swift!" Instantly, there were ten Pidgeys circling Pachirisu, shooting stars at it from all angles. Besides making it impossible for Pachirisu to hit anything with its electricity, it also was visually appealing. _Man, this kid knows what he's doing! I shouldn't have been so confident about the types!_

"And Hikari's Pachirisu takes a beating from a well-coordinated Swift attack!" _Shut up, you annoying announcer! I'm working on it!_

"Pachi!" Pachirisu yelped under the Pidgey's unrelenting Swift attack. Hikari watched as her points lowered by about a fourth. Tearing her eyes away from the screen, she thought fast.

"Pachirisu, Bide!" The electric Pokemon curled up and glowed white, enduring the attack.

"Arrow, Whirlwind!" The circle of Pidgeys once again became a single bird that took off back into the sky and began to flap its wings rapidly to create a cyclone that no one would expect from a Pokemon of its small size. _Shimatta!_ The tornado of air swept the curled up Pachirisu high into the air and above the Pidgey.

"That's one impressive Whirlwind!" The narrator gushed. The crowd cheered.

Hikari's points fell a little more while Grey's remained untouched. She began to feel a little frantic.

"Tackle again!" Grey called confidently. The Pidgey turned itself upwards to aim at the falling Pachirisu.

_Oh, no you don't!_ Hikari saw her chance. Pachirisu had been storing up its energy, now was the time to let it loose.

"Pachirisu, Discharge!" The Pokemon uncurled instantly and let loose a massive blue electrical field that stopped the Pidgey midair. Grey's points took a hit, but Hikari was still behind. 3 minutes to go!

Pachirisu fell back down to the stage as its attack ended, landing perfectly on its tail. The Pidgey also began to fall to the stage, but at a much faster rate and in a nosedive, still paralyzed. It cried out in anguish, and even Hikari cringed at the sound.

"Arrow!" the boy yelled, his voice giving away his distress. For a fraction of a second, the blue-haired coordinator's eyes met those of her opponent across the stage. It was as though through eye contact his emotions had been transferred to her in that instant. She clutched the material over her heart, suddenly finding herself desperately wishing the bird would pull up before it hit the stage.

The bird began to glow white. The crowd gasped, and so did Hikari. _It's evolving!_

"It looks as though Grey's Pidgey has evolved into a Pidgeotto! What a spectacular battle!" the announcer cheered. The crowd went wild. The light faded and the now larger, more elegant bird swooped back up into the air at the last moment before hitting the stage.

"Pidgeotto!" the newly evolved and recovered bird screeched. The boy looked immensely relieved and happy. Hikari was somewhat flustered.

"Alright, Arrow!" he cheered with renewed vigor, "Peck!"

"Dodge!" Pachirisu jumped to the side in the nick of time.

"Again!"

The bird did a barrel roll and dove at Pachirisu once again, beak glowing. Before Hikari even opened her mouth, Pachirisu had sprung out of the way once again.

"Way to go, Pachirisu!" she said, beaming with pride.

Grey looked frustrated. Apparently his newly evolved Pokemon wasn't quite as fast as it had been when it was smaller.

"Let's go, Steel Wing!" The bird's wings began to glow as it swung back around and dove for Pachirisu. Hikari had an idea.

"Pachirisu, use Flash!" A blinding white flash caused the Pidgeotto to veer off course, crashing into the stage. Tiny sparks danced down through the air in a dazzling display thanks to Pachirisu's Flash. The crowd "ooh"ed. Grey's points reduced. He clenched his fists.

"Looks like Grey's Steel Wing has been thwarted by Hikari's quick use of Flash!"

"Iron Tail, quick!" Hikari called, before the Pidgeotto had time to recover.

"Back into the air, move it!" Grey commanded desperately. Pachirisu slammed its tail right onto the Pidgeotto's head, smashing it back down to the stage as it tried to take off. Grey cringed. Pachirisu did a backflip off of the bird's head and back onto its feet. More of the boy's point bar was erased. _How much time is left? _Hikari didn't dare look up at the screen.

"Finish up with a Thunderbolt!" she commanded. The Pidgeotto was still dizzily struggling to get off the ground. Pachirisu began to get charged up. _Come on, come on!_

Grey yelled, "Arrow, stay down and use Hyperbeam!" The bird flapped to its feet, or claws rather, and charged up a Hyperbeam at its beak. Both Pokemon loosed their attacks at the same time. The ball of electricity and the Hyperbeam collided between them, creating an explosion of smoke that obscured the field.

The buzzer sounded.

No one dared to breathe… The smoke started to clear. Hikari's side of the field became visible first.

"Pachi?" Pachirisu looked unscathed, blinking around confusedly. Hikari let out a sigh of relief. _But what about…_

"Pidgeotto!" The bird Pokemon also looked undamaged, using its massive wings to help clear out the smoke.

Hikari and Grey's eyes froze on each other, and then they simultaneously looked up to the screen.

Grey still had about a third of his points left… But Hikari had more than half!

The crowd cheered and the announcer came back on, "The winner is Hikari of Sinnoh!" Hikari and Pachirisu's pictures took over the screen with the large title "WINNER."

Hikari started at the screen until what she saw finally fully registered with her brain, then turned her attention back to her Pokemon.

"Pachi, Pachi!" Pachrisu cheered and bounded into its master's waiting arms.

"You did so good, Pachirisu!" She hugged the little Pokemon tightly. She looked up as she sensed Grey approaching her, having returned his Pokemon and bowed stiffly to the judges. Hikari returned Pachirisu so that she could give a polite handshake, as was customary after a contest battle. As he neared her, Hikari noticed that he looked very tense. He had a bitter look on his face and avoided her gaze as he strode quickly past her without a word. Hikari stood dumbstruck at his rudeness for a moment. She dropped her offered hand, feeling stupid.

A few mutters arose from the crowd at the irregularly ungracious exit of the losing opponent. Hikari could feel her face heating up from both embarrassment and anger. She felt a soft hand on her shoulder and looked over to the sympathetic face of the announcer lady.

"Well, that wasn't very good sportsmanship, was it?" she said with unaffected cheeriness, patting Hikari's shoulder in an annoyingly patronizing manner, "Well, congratulations, anyhow! Please return to the holding area backstage until the final round begins!" She gestured theatrically with her open hand back towards the velvet curtains, as if also for the benefit of the crowd.

Hikari practically stomped off the stage in irritation with both Grey and slightly misplaced anger at the host. When she was once again behind the curtains, she found her previous seat and slumped against the wall, releasing a large huff of air. Some of the other waiting trainers glanced at her with odd expressions. She mustered a weak smile at them. _All right, just cool it. No reason to be upset, you still won!_

Her stomach tightened uncomfortably at that thought. _That was supposed to make me feel better, not worse…_she grumbled mentally. The possibility of actually winning the whole thing momentarily floated before her eyes—a sparkling image of her standing on the top of the podium waving, camera flashes going off and the crowd cheering, one particular face standing out from the masses of people…—she shook it out of her head. _Just keep thinking about what you have to do next. Just get through this next battle. Stay focused._ She breathed out slowly, trying to calm her nerves.

She was the first winner of the second round. That meant there were still five battles to go, with the winners with the highest scores advancing to the finals. After that, the three coordinators with the highest scores would be placed first, second, and third… Hikari gulped. She looked back up at the screen, wondering who she would be placed against next. Grey's photo had already been darkened. She felt a little bubble of pride rise up in her chest for that. _At least I beat that jerk._ How he had acted towards her still bothered her, though. _He was acting like I was going to attack him or something, geez._ She swung her leg and scuffed her black Mary Jane flats against the floor in a show of frustration.

Exhaling loudly again, she stretched her arms over her head, muscles a bit sore from the tenseness of the previous battle. A yawn fought its way to the surface and the blue-eyed coordinator suddenly found herself feeling overcome with intense fatigue. It felt as though someone had draped a relaxingly heavy, warm blanket over her. She could barely register what was in progress, before she was blinking very slowly, eyelids heavy… breathing slowing… body becoming slacker…

_ Blue eyes blinked open. She sat up fast and whipped her head around. She was outside, in the woods somewhere. It was dark. The leaves were rustling in invisible wind. A large pale moon illuminated the sky above. There were no stars. She looked down. Beneath her was dirt and grass. She brushed her hand through the dark green blades, as if testing their reality. Her mind was spinning in confusion. A cool breeze ruffled her hair and she shivered._

–_What was I just doing and how did I get here?– she thought immediately._

_Somehow, despite her efforts, her brain was failing to recal anything that had occurred directly prior to this moment. Her blue eyes darted around her surroundings again. It seemed vaguely familiar, somehow… Apart from the occasional breeze stirring its way through the foliage, there were absolutely no sounds. Just as she was beginning to think that the area was unusually and unnervingly quiet, her ears picked up a sound traveling on the breeze. A voice. Yelling._

_She recognized the voice with a jolt of fear._

"_Satoshi!" she gasped out loud, instantly springing to her feet._

–_Where?–_

_She listened hard, ready to follow the sound._

"_No!" she heard his anguished voice again. She turned her head to the direction of its origin, focused._

"…_STOP!"_

–_Satoshi!–_

_She sprang into a run, expertly weaving through the tree trunks, as if her feet already knew where she was going. She didn't stop to think about that. _

_She came to a clearing with shorter grass and a large log. She observed the scene, panting heavily, covered in a cold sweat. Just a few feet in front of her was Satoshi, with his back to her. His shoulders were shaking. It looked like something dark had melded itself to his feet and glued him to the ground. _

"_Satoshi!" she called, but he seemed to not notice her at all._

_She looked further into the clearing, in front of him._

_Pikachu was there… crumpled on the ground, obviously severely injured, yet still being relentlessly attacked by… something. The only thing Hikari could see was a set of giant, glowing purple claw marks slicing its way through the darkness and striking the small yellow Pokemon with devastating force over and over again. _

_She cried out, wanting to run forward and shield Pikachu from the blows, but her body was unresponsive. Her legs wouldn't budge. She looked down and saw that the black substance now also had fused her feet to the ground. Her attention was drawn back to the scene playing out before her._

"_PIKACHU!! Stop it! Please, I'll…I'll…," Satoshi trailed off desperately, pleading with whoever was controlling the attacking Pokemon. Hikari noticed that he was staring at something above and beyond Pikachu. She followed his line of sight… and found herself looking at…_

–_ME!?...This… This can't be, I'm right here! I don't… understand… what am I doing? What is this?– she thought frantically, eyes glued to what appeared to be her own face, cold and expressionless as Satoshi pleaded._

_She swallowed hard as her world abruptly tilted, her vision blurred at the edges, the entire scene beginning to shake violently before her eyes. There was the distant sensation of falling backwards…  
_

The blue-haired coordinator snapped back into reality, fully conscious in a split second. Light. Intense light. Blue eyes squinted against the offending brightness. She pushed herself up from her currently slouched position, arms quivering.

She half-choked on the warm air entering her lungs, coughing, is if her body was still expecting the chilled night air from her dream. Her throat was dry as she swallowed. She reflexively swept her hand across her forehead, expecting to feel sweat-dampened skin, but it felt completely dry and normal, as if nothing had happened. _Well, nothing did happen did it? It was just a dream…Just a really intense, scary, weird dream…_

A couple of the trainers and employees backstage were looking at her again. Some looked concerned, others suspicious. She ignored them, still trying to get her bearings. _The contest!_ she remembered.

_Did I just fall asleep…? I can't believe I just fell asleep! Oh, please tell me I didn't sleep through the finals!_ Her eyes flew up to the screen. Thankfully, there seemed to still be one match in progress, as one pair of photos still had both illuminated. She noticed with a jolt that one of them was the purple-haired girl from the field.

Still feeling extremely disoriented, Hikari pushed herself to her feet wobbily, just as the crowd beyond the curtain erupted in cheers. Muffled announcements from the lively host followed. The last finalist had obviously just been decided. The blue-haired girl watched the screen with anticipation. The other finalists also turned their attention to the screen. The violet-haired girl's picture remained lit while her opponent's dimmed. Hikari's stomach dropped as she realized the now very real chance that this would be her opponent for the finals.

"All right, will all of our finalists please return to the stage!" the announcer's voice sounded loudly, even in the backstage area. The crowd was cheering louder than ever. Hikari followed the rest of the remaining contestants to the stage entrance.

Before she exited out to the stage, she paused, an icy terror slowly filling her. Now was a time where she would expect her heart to be pounding against her chest, if not from nerves, then from happiness, but….she pressed her palm over her heart…

And with a cold shock, realized that she felt nothing at all.

--

To Be Continued…

AN: Some rather big stuff about to go down in the next chapter, better than this, I promise!  
I don't know when it will be finished, though, so sit tight...

Thanks for reading & Please Review!


	10. Poison!

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Thanks for sticking around! For those of you who reviewed or messaged me, this is for you, as a direct result of you helpfully pestering me to update.

Note: For the sake of moving things along, we're pretending that Hikari and violet-haired girl are the only competitors left to battle.

**Chapter Ten: Poison!**

_Before she exited out to the stage, she paused, an icy terror slowly filling her. ….she pressed her palm over her heart…And with a cold shock, realized that she felt nothing at all._

She just kept moving. Like everything was normal. What else could she do? She wasn't in pain and obviously she was still alive, so it just must be some strange effect of Darkrai's attack on her. Even if she couldn't feel it, her heart still had to be pumping live-giving blood through her body, right? She took a deep breath.

The blue-haired coordinator was temporarily blinded once again as the stadium lights flooded her vision, stepping onto the shiny stage for the final time. She blinked a few times and came to focus on her opponent, already stationed across the stage. Hikari gasped, wondering if the taller girl would recognize her. _I hope not._ The violet-haired girl's eyes narrowed as she saw Hikari. _Looks like she does,_ Hikari thought nervously. Hikari half-waved pathetically, but the taller girl gave no response; in fact her face remained as still and serious as if it were chiseled from marble. She folded her arms across her impressive jade dress that, of course, matched the shade of her piercing eyes perfectly.

_Jeez, she looks pretty. And old. I bet I look like a toddler next to her. An ugly toddler,_ Hikari thought miserably. She took a deep breath and, pretending to be adjusting her necklace, brought her hand back up to her heart… and detected it beating, though only a faint tapping. But it was extremely comforting that it was no longer a nothing feeling.

The loud, echoing voice of the announcer snapped Hikari out of her thoughts. _This is it!_ she realized with a pang of nerves.

"And now the final battle to determine the Champion of this year's Floaroma Festival Contest! The challenger, Hikari from Twinleaf, and the defending champion of 3-years, Lota of Veilstone!"

The crowd roared boisterously for Lota. It seemed she had quite the fanbase.

Hikari gulped trying to keep calm, _Three years defending Champion? Oh man._ She subconsciously rotated Pochama's Pokeball in the palm of her hand. _Maybe I should have saved Buizel for the battle. Maybe she's going to use her Rapidash and Piplup will at least have type advantage… but if she uses that flowery one from before, I'm done for! I wish I would have watched her battle, I would have seen how she works… or at least if she's already used Rapidash, _ thoughts flew through Hikari's head at a frantic pace.

"Let's begin!" the announcer called. The crowd cheered even louder. A tone sounded. Hikari squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. The other girl smirked calmly, and casually flipped a ball into the air with one fluid movement.

"Roserade!" the flower-headed Pokemon from the field twirled onto the stage amidst a sparkling display of flower petals and pastel streamers. _Shimatta, _Hikari cursed mentally._ Grass type against Pochama is bad news._

"Pochama, spotlight time!" Hikari shouted with determination, tossing the ball out and hoping she looked even half as graceful as Lota had. The tiny penguin flipped onto the stage in a burst of sparkles and bubbles.

"Pochama!" it chirped excitedly, flapping its little flipper-like wings. The Roserade narrowed its eyes at its opponent in a way that reminded Hikari very much of its trainer.

"You know what to do, Bella. Let's get started," Lota's unconcerned tone made it obvious she was not nearly as nervous as Hikari. Roserade gave a nod, and at once vines sprung from its flowery appendages and shot at the little penguin at the other end of the field.

"Fly, Pochama!" Hikari shouted.

Everyone was momentarily confused, as Pochama did not know the attack Fly. But Pochama knew what to do—he jumped into the air and used the dodging technique that Hikari had become known for creating. The vines missed the penguin by inches.

"An impressive dodge by the challenger!" echoed the announcer.

"Pochama, peck!" Hikari instructed quickly. His beak started glowing, but the Roserade was too fast.

"Bella," Lota said simply, as if that was a command in itself.

"Zerade!" the Pokemon sung in its high voice before springing into the air after Pochama. It used Vine Whip again. The vines bypassed Pochama's beak and wrapped around its airborne body. The grass Pokemon landed lightly on one foot with Pochama still in its grasp. It slammed Pochama to the stage.

"Pocha!" the penguin squawked, bound tightly and unable to do much of anything. Hikari lost a fourth of her points. She looked across the field at her opponent who appeared quite bored. She was even idly twirling a strand of her violet hair around a finger. A sudden inspiration hit Hikari.

"Spin around, quick Pochama, then Peck!"

Pochama obeyed, twirling as fast as it could on the spot. The vines spun around him further, but Roserade was also pulled forward as the vines were pulled--a sort of reeling effect.

"Not sure about this move by the challenger, Pochama is becoming even more entangled in the vines!" the host commented. Hikari had a strong urge to give her the finger but refrained.

Roserade was very close now. It wouldn't be able to escape Pochama's Peck attack quick enough.

"Go, Pochama, Peck!" Hikari repeated.

"Bella, lift it," Lota ordered serenely.

"Rose!" the Pokemon lifted its arms and Pochama was suspended above it, upside down. There was no way Peck would work now! _Unless….yes!_

"Whirlpool, NOW!" Hikari urged. There would be no way to escape a Whirlpool right on top of it! The water started to swirl at Pochama's beak, growing rapidly into a large vortex.

"Poison Powder!" Lota shouted with a bit more force.

A sparkling powder erupted from the flowery top of the Pokemon, hitting Pochama directly in the face, but it was too late to stop the Whirlpool.

"A beautiful Poison Powder! Also a magnificent Whirlpool by the opponent! Look at the combination!" the announcer gushed.

Both Pokemon were swept up in the upside-down water tornado. Hikari had anticipated this; she knew Pochama wouldn't have enough time to avoid its own attack since it was still tangled in the vines; it was clumsy work, but it was the only move she could think of.

Lota's points reduced by a fourth as her Pokemon flailed around in the water and lost its grip on the penguin Pokemon. The vortex dissipated and splashed back to the stage faster than it usually would have. The small water Pokemon flopped rather gracelessly back onto the stage as the attack finished. At least they had escaped the vines, and disoriented Roserade for a moment.

"Now, Pochama, Peck!" she called quickly, but Pochama didn't move. It's little body shuddered a bit, but stayed on the ground. Hikari bit her lip.

"Pochama appears to be paralyzed! Roserade's Poison Powder was super effective!" echoed the narration. The crowd let out an "oooh!" Hikari knew her points had taken another hit. How could she get out if this, though? She could only wait for Pochama to recover!

"Well, that was cute, kid, but I'm done playing," Lota spoke coldly and directly to Hikari. Her venomous voice cut through the cheering crowd. _Get up, Pochama, get up!_

"Razor Leaf," the champion commanded--then, as an afterthought, added, "With some class."

The Roserade gave an elegant bow to its master, and then started spinning on the spot like an ice skater or a dancer would. As it spun, it slashed at Pochama with Razor Leaf on each pass. Pochama was still unable to move, lying on the stage defenseless.

Hikari cringed as the sharp leaves repeatedly struck her poor little Pokemon. She felt tears come to her eyes as he squeaked with pain. She looked up at the scoreboard but she was only looking for the timer; she didn't care about the points anymore, she wanted the battle to be over as soon as possible. It was clear that she wasn't going to win now, and Pochama was getting hurt! There were only 15 seconds showing on the clock. Hikari breathed a sigh of relief; it would be over soon, there was no reason for the attack to continue. _Why doesn't she just stop, doesn't she see she's already won?_

Lota gave a nod to her Pokemon. Some sort of a signal.

Roserade took a particularly vicious slash at Pochama, and the little Pokemon actually flew across the stage and smacked into one of the decorative hedges. He fell back to the stage hard, shaking. Hikari couldn't take it anymore.

"STOP IT!" she screamed; simultaneously something happened. Hikari was suddenly encased in the same black force field that Buizel had revealed to her on the island. She jumped in alarm. She could still see through its cloudy swirling surface. She retracted her arms to her chest, afraid of touching the surrounding blackness.

A pulse of dark energy released from dark bubble and it struck the Roserade, seemingly electrocuting it sending it careening clear across stage. It shrieked terribly and looked like it was knocked out instantly. The pulse continued to expand and swept across the stage until it came into contact with Lota. It forcefully threw her back into a flowery hedge that saved her from being blasted clear off the platform.

"No!" Hikari gasped, horrified, staring from the Roserade to its trainer. The bubble vanished and the pulse dispersed in a wisp of smoke. Everything was completely still for a moment.

Some strange white light enveloped Pochama for a moment, lifting it up from the stage. When it faded, the Pokemon was back on its feet and looked totally fine, albeit confused. It looked at its master, bewildered.

Hikari was stunned, rooted to the spot. She looked around. All eyes were on her. Angry. Afraid. Shocked. Confused.

The ending buzzer went off, pointlessly. There was a heavy silence over the arena. Then whispers. Then muttering. The slowly rising level of noise sounded like a swarm of angry bees gathering. _Did they think she was cheating? Even she didn't know what she had just done!_

"Uh… It appears there may have been some sort of interference, um…," the announcer fumbled for something to say; some way to explain what had just happened—but there was none.

Lota had recovered, got to her feet, and strode to her Pokemon's side, kneeling beside it. She looked up at Hikari with disgust fixed on her features. The Nurse Joy who had been judging rushed up onto the stage. The audience was on its feet.

"No, no, no….," Hikari faintly shook her head, starting to tremble. She didn't understand what had just happened. _What was that? What's happening to me?!_

"I…. I- G-Gomen nasai!" she gasped. Then she did the only thing she could think of: she ran.

She was backstage, running past puzzled faces and arena workers shouting after her. They became a blur as she tore past. She tore out into the entryway to the coliseum. Drawn by an invisible overpowering magnetic force, she didn't stop. She couldn't. Something was pulling her. Her legs were moving, but she could hardly feel her feet slamming into the ground. The exit gates were in sight.

Hikari had almost run headlong into him before she realized who was standing in her path. The invisible string pulling her snapped.

He looked up, alarmed, but caught her in a flash. The sudden centrifugal force pulled them both into an off-balance half-spin move. They came to an abrupt halt, a foot of space between them. He held her wrists securely in his half-gloved hands.

"Hikari, it's me!" She knew who it was already.

Her breath caught in her throat when she brought her eyes up to his face; he looked afraid. _Afraid of me…_ She was breathing heavily, but she couldn't feel the air filling her lungs. She felt inexplicably drained.

Neither of them moved for a moment, Hikari concentrating hard on holding onto lucidity while Satoshi, staring at her hard, was still trying hard to comprehend the situation. Hikari realized she was trembling from head to toe.

"Hikari, what happened? You left Pochama… Are you all right?" he asked slowly. He didn't _sound_ afraid or angry or accusatory. _Do you think I was cheating? That I would do that to win?_

Hikari tried to catch her breath to answer, but she realized it was pointless, as she didn't have answers to any of his questions anyway. She could only shake her head.

Valiantly fighting the darkness creeping in at the edges of her vision, she managed to retreat a step. He had moved his hands up to rest on her shaking shoulders, and she was still within reach of them, so they kept their grasp. Her limbs were so numb and cold by now, that she had barely registered it. Her eyelashes were clinging together with moisture. She didn't remember when she had started to cry.

Satoshi stepped forward to fill the space she had just created between them and asked in a gentle voice, "Hikari... what's wrong?" In reality, there was only a tiny hint of a waver in his voice, but it was painfully loud to Hikari. His voice, laden with concern but also fear, caused an extreme guilt to take hold of her. _I did that. I hurt that Pokemon, didn't I?_

She just shook her head. She couldn't speak. She was afraid. She was afraid of herself!

She stepped back from him again, still shaking her head slowly, as if it would keep him away. He finally released her, looking thoroughly confused. She might have imagined it, but there could have been a flicker of hurt in those brown eyes.

_I'm sorry. I need to go. I can't stay here. I can't… I don't know what's wrong with me. What if I hurt someone else?_

As she lifted a foot to take off again, the floor seemed to shift beneath her; she swayed as the scene slanted before her eyes. She blinked hard, trying to focus.

In an instant, Satoshi reached for her again, "Hey, take it easy!"

"D-don't… don't…," Hikari choked out, taking another stumbling step back, shaking her head more vigorously and folding her arms tightly around herself, "I don't know what's wrong with me. What's wrong with me? Something's wrong with me, something's wrong…some…thing…"

Her breaths started to come in frantic, hitched gasps. The room was tilting…multiplying, splitting before her eyes.

"Whoa, Hikari, calm down!" Satoshi's alarmed voice echoed strangely in her head, "Hikari! Daijoubu?! Hikari!!"

"Hai, daijoubu…" she heard her own voice say even as she began to feel her mind drift out of consciousness.

As if from a great distance, she dimly felt herself fall, her knees buckling and her sight closing in.

….

_She opened her eyes and found herself lying on her back, staring at a dark, starry sky. The atmosphere was just like the dream she had before the battle. The trees were rustling and the grass was swaying quietly._

_She sat up. Looking down, she saw that she wasn't in her contest outfit, but her old traveling clothes. A rustling noise made her look towards the dense forest surrounding her._

"_Be calm, despite our previous encounter, my purpose is not to cause you fear," a deep voice issued from the darkness. Somehow it was different than the one she remembered from the island—she actually felt calmed by it instead of scared out of her wits._

"_W-Who are you?" the girl asked cautiously._

_A pair of icy blue eyes flashed into view amidst the trees. Hikari jumped._

" _You are the light and the key," the luminous blue eyes said, the voice deep, but at the same time faint and echoing._

"…_D-Darkrai, is that you?" Hikari called to the darkness._

"_You are important. Soon you will understand. Your light which helps others can only hurt you, therefore others can only hurt you," the eyes began to fade away._

"_Nani?! Matte! What did you do to me?! Stop talking in riddles!" The scene seemed to become darker and less clear, like an aged flickering movie projection._

_Darkrai ignored her questions, speaking quickly, "His agents lurk around every corner. My assistance is set, but it cannot last. The cloak comes at a price…. We will meet again. Goodbye." _

"_Hey, come back here!" she tried to get to her feet, but time was running out._

"_It is not I who is leaving…" the voice drifted away._

_The scene flickered out…_

….

A gasp tore its way from her lungs as she regained consciousness. It felt like she had just emerged from being underwater for a little too long. She could feel that she was moving; or being moved, rather. It felt like she was riding in a car on a bumpy road. Her limbs were like stone. She heard breathing. Quick footsteps. Warmth against her side. More footsteps. Someone approached.

"What happened? Is she okay?" a familiar voice panted. Takeshi. Hikari fought to open her eyes, but the lids seemed to be made of lead. She furrowed her brows in effort.

"I dunno, she sort of passed out."

Satoshi. His voice was much closer.

"It's gotta be Darkrai," he growled angrily. Hikari felt it.

She realized that she was being carried. There were arms behind her back and knees supporting her, cradling her tightly against something warm and firm. As she inhaled, she recognized the hazy smell of campfire and pine. She tried to speak, but when she opened her mouth, her throat was so parched that she couldn't make a sound. She was too weak to even cough at the dry air.

A large, warm hand was placed on her forehead. It felt very heavy. It was removed.

"I think she needs to see a Nurse. She's all clammy," Takeshi said urgently from beside Satoshi.

"Yeah, I know, where do ya think I'm takin' her?" he responded a bit defensively.

"What do you think that was, it came from her­—" Takeshi started in a hushed tone.

"Wait right there, young man!" a different, older voice shouted. She heard Satoshi's sneakers squeak against the tile floor, and the movement stopped. A new set of footsteps approached at a jogging pace.

"Please inform Ms. Hikari that she has been disqualified and banned from further contests here in Floaroma for interference, illegal move use, and use of an attack against another trainer…er, when she awakens," the official-sounding male voice instructed.

As much as it hurt to hear, Hikari had been expecting this. She felt she probably deserved it. She didn't know how badly the girl's Roserade had been hurt…. and whatever happened with Pochama… _It's not like I was winning, anyway,_ she thought sullenly.

"What?! You can't be serious!" Satoshi protested loudly. Hikari felt his grip on her tighten, not to an uncomfortable degree, but enough. He moved forward sharply, but was stopped. Hikari could almost picture Takeshi's hand grasping the black-haired boy's shoulder to hold him back.

A shadow overlapped them. Hikari could tell that the older boy had stepped in front.

"Sir, we think there is something wrong with our friend. I don't think she meant to do any of that on purpose. Surely there is something else—" Takeshi started to reason calmly.

"I-I'm sorry, it's already been ruled—ah, I must be going, excuse me," and the footsteps hurried off.

"Why that little—!" Satoshi snarled angrily.

"Satoshi," Takeshi said in a warning tone.

"Yeah, yeah…," he grumbled, then much quieter, "Hang on, Hikari."

They were moving again. Hikari finally managed to pry her eyes open. One eye, then the other one. She had to squint at the brightness. First all she saw was ceiling panels whizzing past. Neither of the boys had noticed her alert state yet. She looked up at the side of Satoshi's determined face as they weaved through the crowd near the stadium gates. Her head was leaning against his shoulder, and it felt too heavy to move even an inch. Hikari licked her lips and swallowed, ready to make another attempt at speaking.

"Hey," came her weak voice. It was just above a whisper; no one heard it.

"Hey!" she tried again, this time it came out a little louder. Still nothing. She flexed her fingers, testing them. They seemed to be functioning properly. She lifted a heavy arm and took hold of the front of her carrier's vest to give it a tug. Satoshi's eyes flicked down to her for a second and then did a double take.

"Hikari!" he exclaimed, stopping and staring down at her. She tried to smile, as a way of showing him that she was okay, but she couldn't even bring one to her face; between the strange dream she'd just had and what had happened at the match, she really didn't have a smile in her anywhere.

Now that she was back to being conscious, it seemed like Satoshi didn't know whether he should keep carrying her or put her down. His arms flexed uncomfortably. He seemed a bit embarrassed by being caught holding her like this. Hikari was too out of it to care much, but she couldn't say that she minded. He ultimately decided to keep her in his arms, and since she was barely even capable of lifting her head from his shoulder to look up at him, this was probably for the better.

"I—uh, you fainted, I think," Satoshi stammered, looking away from her face, to Takeshi, for help.

"Um, maybe we should keep going…?" Takeshi suggested. He didn't want to say where they were going because he knew that Hikari would probably protest.

(Let's pretend there are no people hospitals. I've never really seen any on the show. lol)

"Oh right, Nurse Joy," Satoshi nodded. Takeshi nearly smacked himself on the forehead; clearly, trying to be subtle did not work with Satoshi.

Surprisingly, the girl didn't say anything. Little did they know that she really did want to get checked out—she wouldn't let herself hurt anyone else. _Whatever that bubble thing is, it has to go. I don't know why Darkrai did it, but if it puts others at risk, I don't want it_.

"How are you feeling?" Takeshi peered at her with concerned eyes as they continued walking, Hikari still in the younger boy's arms.

She tried to shrug, but her awkward position against Satoshi's chest made the gesture rather difficult, so she vocalized, "I… don't know. Really strange, I guess. How's Lota's Roserade? Is she okay? How's Pochama?" she started firing off questions rapidly. She didn't ask about how the contest had turned out. She assumed that Lota had been awarded champion again since she had been DQed. They didn't know she had heard the official tell them, though.

"Nurse Joy took Roserade to the PokeCenter. I'm sure it'll be fine," Satoshi said, eyes staring ahead.

"Pochama went, too, just to be sure…." Takeshi added, "Do you think you can walk?"

Hikari frowned and shook her head feebly, an embarrassed flush rising to her cheeks at having to be carried by Satoshi. She could barely move. Physically, she mostly felt tired. Sleepy and worn out all in one, as if she had stayed up all night and then run a marathon.

"Why did you run away?" Satoshi asked suddenly, giving her a quick glance. They were almost to the Trainers Center, where there would be a Nurse Joy working at the Medical Station. It was a short walk outside between the stadium and the Center. The sidewalk was mostly empty, as most people were still at the arena. The sun was starting to go down.

The question caught Hikari off guard, "I… don't really know. I mean, it was like something was pulling me…. It was the only thing I could think of. I mean, did you hear the crowd? It was like they thought I did that on purpose! And the look Lota gave me… I really don't know what happened! You believe me, don't you? You know I would never…" she was starting to get upset thinking about it.

"Of course, Hikari," Takeshi assured immediately, giving a brief smile.

Satoshi and Takeshi shared a look.

"We're here."

--------------------------------

To Be Continued…

Had to end it somewhere! lol

Peace and chicken grease! Thanks for reading & please review!


	11. Dark, Light, and Dawn

**One Pink Scarf**

AN: Hmmmm! Some explanations in this one and a little bit of Shinji. More Pearlshipping coming soon, I swear! Reviews are what keeps me going!

**Chapter Eleven: Dark, Light, and Dawn**

"Awaken."

Hikari snapped awake. A cool breeze blew over her face, shifting her hair out of her eyes. Had someone just spoken? She glanced over to the chair by the window of her room. The window was not open…. Satoshi, in the chair, looked to be fast asleep, his hat tipped over his eyes, slumped over. Pikachu was curled up on his lap. The room was dark, lit only by moonlight. She tried to recall exactly how she had gotten into bed, but couldn't. She assumed they were at the PokeCenter since that was the last thing she could remember.

"If you will consent, I wish to provide explanations."

Hikari nearly jumped out of the bed, except for that she was still so tired she could barely lift hear head. The voice from her dream.

"Darkrai?" she whispered shakily into the seemingly empty room.

"Yes," came an echoing answer from nowhere.

Hikari looked at Satoshi to see if he had awoken at the voice, but he was snoring away. She began to get scared. The heart monitor that had been beeping very slowly and quietly in the background started to pick up in pace.

"I wish to explain, please be calm."

She felt something happen to her, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. With no apparent explanation, she started to feel less afraid, and very relaxed. The monitor slowed.

"Can we speak?" the deep disembodied voice asked.

Hikari nodded slowly at the empty room, somehow knowing it would know her answer. _What choice do I have? I legendary Pokemon wants to have a conversation with me in the middle of the night! _she thought rather hysterically.

"I cannot appear here. Please relax."

The blue-haired girl blinked once and when she opened her eyes, she was outside. She looked around rapidly, and saw that she was in an alleyway of some sort. It was narrow and had tall brick walls on either side. She looked down and squeaked; she was hovering five feet above the ground.

An invisible force slowly and gently set her down on her stocking-clad feet. The pavement was cold and the air was chilly. She shivered. Her knees wobbled and she couldn't stop herself from falling forward—until something caught her. It felt like a cold breeze, but stationary somehow, like a bubble of pressurized air. She was carefully lifted by the invisible support so that she was cradled in a fashion similarly to how Satoshi had been carrying her, but much less pleasant—her cheeks heated a bit at the memory. While she was grateful to not be lying on the dirty ground, she felt extremely uneasy hovering there with no visible support. She cleared her throat timidly, having the feeling that someone would hear it….

"I apologize… you are still very weak, and for that I am principally responsible," a soft voice said.

Hikari couldn't help but gasp as the dark Pokemon materialized before her eyes (and around her). She was being held by the large arm and clawed hand of the legendary Darkrai. She gazed up into the now familiar bright crystal-colored eyes, which were trained intently on her. She knew she should, but Hikari still didn't feel afraid. Whatever calming trick had been played on her mind was evidently still working.

He continued to stare down at her with his expressionless face. The red collar and white vapor stood out against the dark night sky. _Damn he's intimidating_. She swore his eyes twinkled at bit after she thought that.

She finally unstuck her tongue and took a deep breath, "I… uh… hi, er, Darkrai. What, um, what exactly do you mean by that? By what you just said?" She tried to lean forward, but could only raise her head a little.

"Please do not feel compelled to speak aloud. I can hear your mind just as well, and you should conserve what energy you have, little light."

Hikari nodded dumbly and awkwardly leaned back into the ghostly arm, wondering at the strange nickname. She hadn't realized that Darkrai hadn't been actually speaking aloud—the voice was only in her head. It was hard to tell the difference, really. She wondered if it could speak aloud, if it had a mouth at all.

"I know you must have many questions. If you have patience, I will answer as many as I can. I am in a weakened state, because, like you, I have recently overtaxed my powers… I say that I am responsible for your weakness because I have inhabited your vessel for the past few days. I never would have… had I known who you were. I have seen both your mind and your heart, so I am certain. You were the one I have been searching for, and you found me first!"

Hikari was very confused. She opened her mouth to ask about a million questions (forgetting already about the not-speaking part)—but was silenced by a large claw gently placed on her lips. She blinked.

"Please. If you let me tell the story, you may find your questions have been answered. Then again, you may have many more after I tell you what I have to say…"

Hikari nodded again. The claw was removed.

"Good. I shall start when you first arrived at my island. I must tell you that some of what happened to you there was my fault, but most was not. You see, I am not the only Dark creature that was imprisoned on that island. I was watching over you two humans, to protect you from the Other. His powers are much like mine, so you may have believed I was the one causing you all of that trouble. When you resisted his dark powers, I thought there might be something special about you, but I did not know the extent. I used your vessel to escape from the island. Once I entered your body and saw what was in your heart…such light I have never seen. I knew I had to protect you, and I thought I could by remaining inside you. For that, I must apologize. I felt your distress and acted… I now see that it was not for the best. I tried to get you out, so that I could explain right away, but certain… forces… seem to keep interfering."

Hikari was trying to process everything she was hearing, to connect all of the dots… but there were so many dots! She noticed he had paused. She nodded for him to continue, but he didn't. His form seemed to be becoming more transparent.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I must apologize, again. I will explain more later, but I fear I will not last much longer in this state… I must rest for a short while. I shall be your protector, by your side from now until you have no use for me."

Darkrai held out its other claw, and a glowing ball of light appeared. The light faded, and a black Pokeball was levitating in its place. Hikari stared at it in wonder.

"I have complete trust in you. I have seen your dreams. I know what you are destined for. Please do not forget my words, and know that I am your fiercest ally. Please do not forget," his intense blue eyes pierced her sapphire ones. The girl nodded slowly, in a trancelike state.

The large ghost bowed its head, and then disappeared with a flash of red into the black ball that dropped into her palm. Her body floated back to the ground, feet first. She slumped against the brick of the alleyway, rather dazed from everything. She was feeling a lot better than before, however. Her limbs were much more responsive and she finally felt warm from the inside, a sensation that she had almost forgotten. She pressed a palm to her chest. Her heart was back to beating at a regular pace, more noticeable to her than it had ever been, feeling like each beat was a gift to be treasured. She sighed. The warm breath rose in a misty cloud in the cold air.

Then she realized the situation she had been left in: Alone in a dark, cold alley in the middle of the night with no shoes and no Pokemon (except the passed-out Darkrai). At least she as wearing clothes. She looked down—she had been changed out of her contest dress and back into her regular clothes. _Thank Entei that they didn't have any human hospital gowns!_

The city was quiet. There was the sound of an occasional car passing by and far-off noises of boats in the harbor. She peaked around the corner of the alley. She could see the brightly lit PokeCenter. It wasn't far away; she could make it there with no shoes. The roads were made of cobblestone so it wouldn't be too bad on her feet, she figured. Straightening up, she gripped Darkrai's ball tightly as she started towards the street, wondering how she was going to explain herself if anyone saw her trying to sneak back in…

Suddenly, a dark shape streaked across the entrance to the alley. Hikari yelped in alarm and backed up a few steps, retreating into the dark. She squinted at the dimly lit street. There was no sign of anything for a moment. Then there was a low rumbling sound growing closer. Something stepped back into the opening of the alley; it seemed to have heard her yell and come back to investigate. The shape was silhouetted by the moonlight, so she couldn't make out what it was. It was on all fours and had eyes that were faintly glowing red. It was about waist height on the girl. It was frozen at the end of the alley, peering in. Hikari wondered if it could see her in the darkness. She stayed very still and pressed herself to the wall, trying not to breathe. She heard it sniffing the air. Then it raised its head to the starry sky.

"Houuuuuuuuuuund!" it howled loudly, startling Hikari. She kept quiet and as still as possible, but she was beginning to shake. From fear or cold, she didn't know. _Why me? Why, oh why me?_

Instantly, she heard a stampede of paws and claws clicking and thudding their way over, and the one Pokemon was joined by four more just like it. One of the Pokemon was very obviously bigger than the rest, and it pushed itself to the front of the pack. As it stepped into the shadowed side street, Hikari could see that it was a large, black dog with curled bonelike horns in its head. She couldn't remember what it was called, but she knew it was a Fire and Dark type.

_It sure doesn't look very friendly… _She peeled herself off the wall and held her hands up in front of her to show she meant no harm, a bit awkwardly since she was still holding the Pokeball in one.

"H-hello, there," she said carefully. The largest dog growled loudly and the others joined, snapping their slobbery teeth at her. _Not the response I was hoping for!_

"Hey, hey! Let's not get angry, I don't want to hurt you!" Hikari tried nervously.

The alpha dog barked and it sounded like it was laughing at her. Hikari gulped, backing up slowly.

"What do you w-want?" The growling increased. Hikari looked out to the deserted street, desperately hoping a car or person would come by, but it remained empty. She returned her eyes to the pack of dogs in front of her.

Steam was faintly rising from their sleek bodies, probably due to the fact that they were always hotter than normal, being fire Pokemon. The group's claws clicked and scraped on the pavement as they came closer, echoing in the small alley. Another dog stepped forward and snapped at her with its sharp fangs, snarling. She jumped back, just missing having her arm chomped on.

"Hey!!" she exclaimed.

Seeing that they weren't here for friendly conversation, she quickly picked up a large, heavy piece of wood from the ground and swung it in front of her defensively. They stopped and backed up a bit. Then the largest of the black dogs barked loudly, and another promptly set the plank on fire with a shot of Flamethrower from its mouth. Hikari squeaked in fright and dropped her now flaming weapon. It clattered loudly on the cement where it kept smoldering.

"Uhhh, Darkrai, little help?" she muttered out the side of her mouth, looking at the black ball. No response. _Now I wish I still had that bubble!_

She backed up until her back bumped into some wooden crates stacked at the end of the alley. She looked up and around frantically. She couldn't climb up the crates; they were stacked too high. _Nowhere to go! _

The growling pack continued its advance, closing in on her slowly. The exit to the alleyway was completely blocked. Their spaded tails whipped around excitedly. A couple dogs barked in anticipation. She clutched Darkrai's ball to her chest. Lowering their horned heads and shifting their weight, they prepared to pounce… Hikari squeezed her eyes shut and braced for it…

"WHIRLPOOL, NOW!"

Her heart leapt into her throat and her eyes flew open. She recognized that voice! But she didn't see anyone… A Weavile came charging into the alley by itself and attacked.

A tunnel of water filled the space and swept up all five of the dogs, which yelped and whined in surprise as they twisted in the vortex. The water moved out of the alley and dumped the dogs onto the cobblestone street, where they scrambled to their paws, shook off, and ran with their tails between their legs.

The boy stepped into view. He wasn't facing her. The Weavile seemed to be eyeing her curiously.

Hikari stared at the back of her savior. His violet hair was evident even in the low light. He didn't turn around until the pack of dog Pokemon had rounded the street corner and disappeared from sight. He recalled his Weavile mutely, still staring after them.

"A-arigato," Hikari called, stumbling up from the crates and brushing herself off.

He finally turned to look at her. To Hikari's surprise, he looked angry. She blinked, Angrier than he usually did, that is. His fists were balled and shaking slightly. _What should I say?_

"Uh, Shin—"

"Just what the _hell _do you think you're doing?" he asked in a harsh whisper, voice echoing off the tall brick walls. His biting glare made her shrink back a bit.

He advanced on her until he was directly in front of her and she could feel the heat radiating from his body.

She opened her mouth, but before she could stutter a response, he continued, "How idiotic are you?! Packs of wild Pokemon aren't the only dangerous things lurking around a city at night. I knew you had to be stupid, hanging around with Satoshi, but I didn't know you were _that_ dumb."

Hikari just stood here, shivering, flabbergasted. She had gotten splashed a bit from the whirlpool and was now in damp clothes in the chilly night air. She didn't know what to say. She was angry and offended and relieved at the same time. She couldn't figure out which she wanted to voice first. She opened and then closed her mouth a few times, no words coming to mind.

He looked her over, eyes pausing at her wrist, then moving on and stopping again at her feet. Once again, she blushed a bit at his scrutiny. She was glad it was dark. She brushed her hair down with her fingers.

"You're sick and you don't have any shoes on," he stated flatly, looking back to her face with an expression that looked a little less angry and a little more something else. She looked down at her wrist, wondering what he had stopped at—her PokeCenter band. That's why he thought she was sick. She was still holding the Pokeball, so she dropped her hand behind her back quickly to avoid questions from the violet-eyed boy. He sighed loudly.

"Ridiculous," he muttered, and raked a hand through his hair agitatedly. Hikari stared at her socked feet, feeling like a child being scolded. She bit her lip. _ How can I explain this without sounding insane? I can't tell him about Darkrai…_

Suddenly, she felt something warm being draped over her bare shoulders and snapped her head back up. Shinji wasn't wearing his jacket anymore. He silently pulled the jacket around her, zipping it up with her arms pinned inside. He didn't look at her awed face, concentrating on the zipper only, and then moved away quickly.

Hikari clumsily worked her arms into the sleeves. They came down to her fingertips. She did feel much warmer. The heat of the previous wearer was still lingering in the jacket. Her cheeks flared up at that thought. She wrapped her arms around herself, shifting her weight nervously, watching him.

"You didn't get yourself hurt, did you?" he asked roughly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

She shook her head. He let out a breath that blew his bangs up for a second. Hikari almost smiled. Almost.

"…Shinji, I… arigato," she said softly, "I… was out here for a good reason, but I can't really tell you… It, I, uh...."

He whipped around suddenly, "Was it worth your life?" he growled, staring at her incredulously.

"I… well, yes, I think so…," Hikari mumbled quietly. His eyes seemed to widen a fraction, but he didn't say anything. He fixed her with a suspicious look and crossed his arms over his chest, as if waiting for further explanation.

"Listen, since when do you care so much what I do with my life?" Hikari asked, straightening and placing her hands on her hips. She was actually way more grateful than angry at the moment, but she wanted to stop him from asking what she had been doing; she was a terrible liar. _Don't let him ask any questions! Change the subject!_

He blinked at her, hesitating a fraction of a second. He shoved his hands in his pockets aggressively.

"Never said I did" he answered coldly and stiffly turned away again. _What's with this kid and his mood swings?!_

"Well, I know you don't like me much, but that's a bit heartless, even for you."

A pause.

"I…you asked."

"Then why did you even bother?"

"You're—If you're risking your life doing something dangerous for that idiot Satoshi—" he broke off abruptly. Silence.

"…What? What does this have to do with… wait, never mind. It's not for him, but of course I would risk my life for the people I care about, and that includes Satoshi!" she fired back.

"….," Shinji growled lowly but said nothing. He pulled a Pokeball from his pocket and wordlessly released a Pokemon. A large Honchcrow appeared.

"Crow!" it called, flapping its massive black wings.

"Take her to the PokeCenter," Shinji ordered tonelessly without looking at the blue-eyed girl.

"Honch!" the crow Pokemon answered, and hopped over to Hikari. It bent down and extended a large wing like a ramp for her to get onto its back.

The girl hesitated.

"Crow?"

Shinji looked. Hikari was looking back at him. The two stared at each other for a second.

"What?" the boy questioned stiffly. She couldn't read his expression.

"I… A-arigato… I'm sorry," she said quickly, and clambered on to the bird's feathery back.

The bird folded its wings and stared at its master, waiting.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get!" he barked.

"Honchcrow!" the bird cawed and took flight immediately. Hikari leaned forward to grasp its neck, her eyes still on Shinji and his on hers. She could have sworn she saw a smirk as they lifted up into the night sky.

_That was so weird._

--------------------------------

To Be Continued…

Well…?


	12. Chapter Preview: Dark

Hello! I just wanted to give you all this teensy preview of the next chapter to let you know that it's in the works and I'm not dead! Hopefully I'll see you again soon!

PREVIEW…. CHAPTER 12: DARK

Satoshi woke in the morning with a start. He had a strange feeling that he had missed something important while he had been asleep. Though, he often got that same feeling even when he was awake. Sitting up, he stretched his limbs that had grown stiff from sleeping in a chair. For a moment he had to think hard to remember why exactly he had been sleeping in a chair, but then the events of the previous day quickly came flooding back to him. He remembered that he'd carried Hikari to the PokeCenter after she'd freaked out (and then passed out) during her contest battle. After Satoshi had explained that the girl had seemed slightly hysterical before she'd passed out (out of earshot of Hikari of course), Nurse Joy insisted on having a Drowzee perform Hypnosis on her and she was asleep again instantly. The Nurse strongly suggested that both boys rent a room and leave Hikari to get some rest, but Satoshi wouldn't budge. Takeshi said something weird about Hikari being "in good hands" and had willingly exited, leaving Satoshi feeling a little betrayed but mostly confused. It came back to him particularly clearly how pale and fragile the girl had looked lying there and how helpless he had felt…

Snapping out of his reflection, the black-haired boy reorganized the hat on his head and rubbed his eyes. He noticed that the usual warm weight of Pikachu sleeping on him was missing.

He found that his Pokemon had moved from his lap to Dawn's stomach sometime during the night. It was a bit strange, but not all that surprising. Pikachu had never really slept anywhere besides on or around Satoshi, but Hikari and Pikachu had always had a strong bond since she had helped it out on the day they first met.

The boy's brown eyes travelled up to the girl's peaceful, sleeping face. She already looked a lot better—in the way of health, that is. At least she wasn't as pale as she had been the past couple of days since their misadventure on New Moon Island. Something had definitely seemed off about her since then…and it seemed to have sort of blown up at the contest. Satoshi, of course, was confident in her innocence in the entire situation. He knew that Hikari would never intentionally seriously hurt anyone or anything and definitely not to win at a contest. The only thing he could work out was that she had been affected by Darkrai in some lingering way that he hadn't.

Realizing that he'd been caught up in his thoughts again—which was usually a rare occurrence, because he normally didn't have enough thoughts for that—he shook his head clear and stood up. The action knocked something from the chair with a loud, plastic clatter. He jumped as the small, outdated television mounted on the wall flickered to life….


End file.
